Meta-fences for blocking flexural waves in plates

A sparse array of identical tiny scatters, which we call meta-fences, is presented with a non-destructive way to omnidirectionally block flexural waves in plates. The underlying mechanism is that the restraining force and moment of the scatter are tuned simultaneously to counter-balance the incident wave. Both our experimental results and numerical analysis have demonstrated that wave sources in the range from 3 to 7 kHz can be segregated from the protected area by the meta-fence. In addition, the meta-fence is further assembled into a waveguide routing with an arbitrary configuration. Compared with previous isolators and waveguides, our meta-fences exhibit absolute advantages in compact size, flexible configuration, and high structural strength. The current scenario sheds light on the design of lightweight-and-strong architectures for vibration control and energy harvest with a high efficiency.