H2020Individual fellowship2018–2020

METAQUAKENG · METAMATERIALS IN EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2018-09-01 → 2020-08-31
EU contribution
€183,455
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

METAMATERIALS IN EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING

My aim was to critically explore the potential of using large scale metamaterials for elastic waves control, having as a main objective the design of an optimal device, its numerical validation and hopefully its experimental characterization to really show whether this is feasible or not. The approach I used is twofold: I employed inertial resonators (IRs) to engineer seismic shields based on low frequency stop bands for surface and bulk waves by converting them into evanescent waves, and I further looked at conformal mappings to design seismic carpet cloaks smoothly detouring surface waves around a group of buildings.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

This project aims to design, develop, and experimentally confirm, elastodynamic metamaterial devices based on subwavelength elements to mitigate the damage created by waves due to earthquakes. The inter-disciplinary project that I propose will take advantage of the modelling skills of an applied mathematics group, use ideas that are becoming established in the wave physics of optics and electromagnetism and draw upon my experience in engineering: together with the planned secondments to France (Institut Fresnel, expertise in analogies between Photonics and Geophysics) and Romania (TU Iași, expertise in Civil Engineering and Seismology) this will bring coordinated and highly relevant experience to bear upon this topical and important issue.When a vibration comes from an hypocenter, different types of waves can propagate through the soil; mostly volume (shear and pressure) waves and surface (Rayleigh and Love) waves. These waves can interact with building type superstructures at certain frequencies. This is particularly devastating when they coincide with the resonance frequencies of those buildings. Exploiting elastodynamic metamaterials for seismic protection has, as unyet proven, potential to radically change how resilient structures are designed in the future. The aim of this project is to critically explore their potential and the objective is to design the optimal device and test it and hence really show whether this is feasible or not. The approach I will use will employ inertial resonators (IRs) to engineer frequency stop bands for seismic waves by converting them into evanescent waves.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE · LondonCoordinatorUnited Kingdom

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union