Passive discrete lens for broadband elastic guided wave focusing

Abstract

Elastic guided wave focusing is of great interest for applications such as vibroacoustic control, energy harvesting, or Structural Health Monitoring. Different strategies allow generation of this effect, GRadient-INdex devices in particular exploit medium with varying properties such as thickness to reproduce an adequate refractive index profile as in optics. The resulting continuous profiles have a curved geometry that can be hard to manufacture, and be difficult to integrate in a given design. The purpose of this paper is to propose a discrete design for a GRIN lens. It is composed of segments selected in number and thickness to give similar focusing effects as a continuous lens profile. The identified configuration is manufactured and bounded on an aluminium plate to evaluate the effective focusing performances. Numerical and experimental vibrometry results confirm that the proposed lens exhibits a fixed focal point over a broad frequency range. The discrete design overcomes fabrication issues encountered in continuous design, allowing for an easier integration in devices for elastic wave control.