Control analysis of the tunable phononic crystal with electrorheological material

The elastic band structure of a two-dimensional phononic crystal (PC) with electrorheological (ER) material is investigated and the plane-wave-expansion (PWE) method is adopted to solve the problem in this paper. The ER material is used to act as a tunable elastic composite inserts and its material parameter can be changed by the applied electric fields. Variations of the band gaps for the phononic composite system are also calculated with various electric fields and it is found to have a significant effect on the band gaps of the phononic system with ER material inserts. The band gaps of the smart system can be controlled and the acoustic characteristics of the system are also changed by applied different electric fields.