Metamaterials are periodically structured materials effecting physical quantities that can be described by a wave. The periodic structure of the material leads to non-natural properties, like a negative effective mass. Hence, metamaterials generate band gaps leading to an impermeability of the material for waves in certain frequency ranges. Other applications are the design of lenses for wave phenomena or waveguides.
The chair of vibroacoustics of vehicles and machines conducts research in the area of sound propagation in solids, fluids and coupled systems. The chair developed its own analyzation techniques based on self-implemented boundary element and infinite element codes.
Actual research topics are the computation of acoustic metamaterials made using additive manufacturing techniques. The influence of the propagation of the sound wave in the structure itself is also of interest. The main issues are the generation of broadband stop-bands complying with lightweight design criteria.