Prestrain-induced bandgap tuning in 3D-printed tensegrity-inspired lattice structures

In this letter, we provide experimental evidence of bandgap tunability with global prestrain in additively-manufactured tensegrity-inspired lattice structures. These lattices are extremely lightweight and designed to exhibit a nonlinear compressive response that mimics that of a tensegrity structure. We fabricate them out of a stiff polymer but, owing to their peculiar design, they are compliant and remain elastic up to high levels of precompression. In turn, unlike tunable metamaterials made of soft polymers, the response of our lattices is not dominated by damping. We perform experiments on a one-dimensional lattice subject to longitudinal wave excitation and varying levels of static longitudinal precompression, and observe continuous tuning of both the wave speed and the location and width of the lowest-frequency bandgap.