The excellent applications and researches of so-called photonic crystals raise the exciting researches of phononic crystals. By the analogy between photon and phonon, repetitive composite structures that are made up of different elastic materials can also prevent elastic waves of some certain frequencies from passing by, i.e., the frequency band gap features also exist in acoustic waves. In this paper, we present the results of the tunable band gaps of acoustic waves in two-dimensional phononic crystals with reticular band structures using the finite element method. Band gaps variations of the bulk modes due to different thickness and angles of reticular band structures are calculated and discussed. The results show that the total elastic band gaps for mixed polarization modes can be enlarged or reduced by adjusting the orientation of the reticular band structures. The phenomena of band gaps of elastic or acoustic waves can potentially be utilized for vibration-free, high-precision mechanical systems, and sound insulation.
The influence of spatially varying materials and buckling instabilities on elastic band gaps