Dynamic cloaking in thin elastic plates: A metamaterial design methodology based on geometric transformation
Phys. Rev. Applied 26, 044031 – Published 9 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/v7yk-qtjp
Abstract
Since the first proofs of concept in electromagnetics concerning the possibility of invisibilizing the presence of an inclusion in a field, a considerable amount of research has been carried out with the objective of generalizing these properties to other areas of physics. The case of waves in elastic solids is still an open problem, since it has been shown that traditional theory cannot be applied to this more complex type of wave propagation. We propose a design methodology still based on the geometrical transformation initially used, no longer with the aim of transforming the governing equation of Kirchhoff–Love plates, but with the aim of generating curved waveguides that force bending waves to propagate in the direction advocated by the preliminary idea of cloaking. Numerical results show that the resulting metamaterial is capable of making an inclusion invisible over a wide frequency band for a unidirectional incident wave. In addition to the numerical results, we provide results from experiments conducted on the manufactured cloak, confirming the relevance of the proposed design.
