Shedding New Lights on Seismic Metamaterial Design from the Perspective of Multidirectional Wave Attenuation

Seismic metamaterials (SMs) present an emerging technology for protecting infrastructures from earthquakes. They exhibit exceptional strength in directing seismic waves, leading to significantly improved energy absorption compared to traditional methods. Considering the direction of the incident seismic wave is generally unknown due to the unpredictable nature of earthquakes, this study aims to quantify multidirectional seismic attenuation performance of SMs and use it as the key metric for guiding SM design in real-world scenarios. A high-fidelity modeling approach is developed, which is further integrated with tailored features to achieve efficient performance assessment. Building upon this approach, a hierarchical design, involving the optimal identification of unit cell topology and unit cell arrangement pattern in the SM, is conducted to enhance the multidirectional seismic attenuation performance. This study offers a novel perspective on the SM design by incorporating practical considerations, showcasing practical applicability and significance. The efficacy of the proposed methodology is validated by implementing a comprehensive case study of the SM design.