Extreme dynamics from transition waves in bistable metastructures

Metastructures with underlying bistable microstructure have shown strongly nonlinear interaction between the transition waves and the structural modes, resulting in input-independent frequency conversion. The studied architecture has also provided a new paradigm for designing metamaterials and metastructures by breaking the strong correlation between the unit cell structures and the apparent macroscopic dynamics. In this study, the reciprocal behavior of the same architecture is explored, such that excitations at the macroscopic structural level induce transition waves within the microstructure. The constituting unit cell has a wide variety of tunable parameters, which can be adjusted to match the operating conditions or alter the response characteristics. Notably, the lattice discreteness can control the amount of radiated energy in the form of phonons trailing main transition waves. Thus, the studied architecture can be used to redirect and dissipate the energy from potentially dangerous ambient sources or power core infrastructures with integrated energy transduction mechanisms. Furthermore, the induced transition waves can still alter the macroscopic response of the metastructures, disrupting or neutralizing any unwanted input sources.