Adaptive Acoustic Metamaterials for Wave Control, Resilience, and Energy Autonomy

Acoustic and elastic waves are traditionally regarded as disturbances to be attenuated, isolated, or dissipated. Recent advances in acoustic metamaterials, architected media, active materials, and programmable microstructures are changing this perspective: wave energy can now be filtered, redirected, localized, harvested, and reused within multifunctional material systems. This shift opens new opportunities for adaptive acoustic insulation, vibration mitigation, resilient structural interfaces, wave steering, non-reciprocal transport, and energy-aware smart structures.This research topic focuses on the emerging class of active, adaptive, and resilient acoustic metamaterials capable of controlling wave propagation through engineered microstructures, nonlinear mechanisms, feedback-based actuation, and multiphysics couplings. Unlike conventional passive materials, these systems can modify their dynamic response according to operating conditions, enabling tunable band gaps, directional wave transport, energy localization, amplitude-dependent dissipation, and recoverable protection against intense dynamic loads.Adaptive metamaterials offer a route toward thin, lightweight, multifunctional devices that combine acoustic attenuation, elastic wave manipulation, structural resilience, and partial energy autonomy. In particular, non-reciprocal and non-Hermitian wave systems, multistable and snap-through architectures, smart interfaces, graded microstructures, and magneto-electro-elastic or piezoelectric couplings are creating a new design space for acoustic and vibro-elastic control.A key challenge is the integration of modelling, design, manufacturing, and validation. The development of such systems requires multiscale elastodynamic models, dynamic homogenization, nonlinear mechanics, topology optimization, uncertainty-aware design, additive manufacturing, and experimental characterization. This research topic aims to gather contributions that advance the fundamental physics, computational design, fabrication, and validation of adaptive acoustic and elastic metamaterials for next-generation smart structures.Submissions may address, but are not limited to:• Active and adaptive acoustic metamaterials• Elastic and vibro-acoustic metamaterials for wave propagation control• Tunable band gaps, acoustic filtering, wave steering, and waveguiding• Non-reciprocal and non-Hermitian acoustic or elastodynamic systems• Programmable and feedback-controlled metamaterial architectures• Nonlinear acoustic and elastic metamaterials exploiting snap-through, multistability, hysteresis, and frictional dissipation• Resilient metamaterials for vibration mitigation, acoustic insulation, impact protection, and seismic shielding• Wave trapping, energy localization, and acoustic/vibrational energy harvesting• Piezoelectric, flexoelectric, magneto-electro-elastic, thermo-responsive, and shape-memory metamaterials• Dynamic homogenization, continualization, and multiscale modelling of acoustic metamaterials• Inverse design, topology optimization, surrogate modelling, and uncertainty-aware optimization for wave-control metamaterials• Additive manufacturing, polymer foaming, graded cellular materials, and scalable fabrication of acoustic metamaterials• Experimental characterization of adaptive acoustic panels, vibro-acoustic interfaces, and multifunctional demonstrators• Applications in smart buildings, resilient infrastructures, aerospace systems, naval platforms, transportation, acoustic comfort, and energy-autonomous structures Topic editors: Francesca Fantoni, Andrea Bacigalupo Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83466/adaptive-acoustic-metamaterials-for-wave-control-resilience-and-energy-autonomy