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Wave propagation through an elastically-asymmetric architected material

A one-dimensional wave propagation through elastically asymmetric media is investigated. A class of metamaterials possessing an arbitrary elastic asymmetry is proposed. This asymmetry results in different wave speeds of tensile and compressive components of elastic waves. The faster component can overtake the slower one resulting in their dissipative annihilation through energy cascades. Efficient absorbing assemblies are presented and analysed numerically. The length of the asymmetric part needed to damp a harmonic signal is determined analytically and validated numerically. Transmission properties for random self-affine wave-packets are studied: a universal scaling for the transmission factor variation with the length of the asymmetric part was established.