MM as EMA
Data-Driven Design / Research
Category
Multifunctional metamaterial / Data-Driven Design
Publication info
Lim, D. D., Lee, S., Lee, J. H., Choi, W., & Gu, G. X. (2024). Mechanical metamaterials as broadband electromagnetic wave absorbers: investigating relationships between geometrical parameters and electromagnetic response. Materials Horizons, 11(10), 2506-2516.
Publication Link
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2024/mh/d3mh01959d
This study demonstrates the multifunctional usage of low-density and robust mechanical metamaterials as effective broadband electromagnetic wave absorbers, realizing their impedance matching and structural absorption capabilities originating from their porous lattice structure. The correlation between the geometrical parameters of mechanical metamaterials and the electromagnetic wave response remained unanswered due to the large number of design parameters in the lattice structure and the invisible electromagnetic wave response, making it challenging to define the underlying absorbing mechanisms through an empirical approach. In this work, we elucidate the electromagnetic response and absorbing mechanism of octet-truss and octet-foam, each representing open-strut and closed-shellular mechanical metamaterials, by using experimentally validated numerical analysis. We investigate how geometrical features, including unit cell length, volume fraction, strut/sheet composition, and multilayer structures, affect the transmission, reflection, and absorption of electromagnetic waves in the multi-bandwidth range of 4–18 GHz. This work provides insights into materials science, demonstrating the use of lattice structure as a broadband absorber and enabling the design of application-specific multifunctional metamaterials.