Static and Dynamic Characterization of a Vibration Decoupling Element Based on a Metamaterial Structure

When targeting vibration isolation, metamaterials do represent very powerful solutions, given the extreme design flexibility that can be introduced. However, dealing with metamaterials ensuring wide bandgaps in vibration stop-band filter configuration is highly challenging. This chapter discusses the static and dynamic characterization of a decoupling mechanical system designed to act as a metamaterial stop-band filter in the 1500–15000 Hz frequency range. The system is produced in PA2200 polyamide powder by exploiting Selecting Laser Sintering technology. The external envelope of the system is a parallelepiped of 4 \(\times \) 4 \(\times \) 12 cm. Both contact and noncontact vibration approaches have been investigated to properly identify the effective bandwidth of the filter and the eventual structural resonances that might spoil its filtering capabilities in the target frequency range. The experimental data is used to update the linear numerical model exploited for the structure design.