Viscoelastic locally resonant double negative metamaterials with controllable effective density and elasticity

A metamaterial that is composed of solid viscoelastic elements with controllable properties is proposed in this Letter. This enables an adaptable and general acoustic metamaterial to be practically realised. An array of masses with a single elastic connection to a supporting viscoelastic structure, such as one that is dynamically equivalent to an array of Helmholtz resonators, only provides a system with negative effective mass. A local active control scheme applied to each of these masses can emulate additional elastic connections to the supporting structure. An array of masses with a suitable local control scheme can provide both the negative effective stiffness and mass required for negative refraction. The tuneable feedback control parameters determine the characteristics of the region of double negativity.