Wave Energy Focalization in a Plate With Imperfect Two-Dimensional Acoustic Black Hole Indentation

The acoustic black hole (ABH) phenomenon in thin-walled structures with a tailored power-law-profiled thickness allows for a gradual change of the phase velocity of flexural waves and energy focalization. However, ideal ABH structures are difficult to realize and suffer from potential structural problems for practical applications. It is therefore important to explore alternative configurations that can eventually alleviate the structural deficiency of the ideal ABH structures, while maintaining similar ability for wave manipulation. In this study, the so-called imperfect two-dimensional ABH indentation with different tailored power-law-profiled is proposed and investigated. It is shown that the new indentation profile also enables a drastic increase in the energy density around the tapered area. However, the energy focalization phenomena and the process are shown to be different from those of conventional ABH structure. With the new indentation profile, the stringent power-law thickness variation in ideal ABH structures can be relaxed, resulting in energy focalization similar to a lens. Different from an ideal ABH structure, the energy focalization point is offset from, and downstream of indentation center, depending on the structural geometry. Additional insight on energy focalization in the indentation is quantitatively analyzed by numerical simulations using structural power flow. Finally, the phenomenon of flexural wave focalization is verified by experiments using laser ultrasonic scanning technique.