Programmable Supratransmission in a Mechanical Chain with Tristable Oscillators

Abstract

Supratransmission refers to a phenomenon that nonlinear medium allows large-amplitude waves to transmit energy through the band gap, which has been extensively studied in many nonlinear models. Recently, controlling supratransmission using bistable nonlinearities has gained growing attentions. Nevertheless, the general principles of controlling supratransmission using multistable nonlinearities have remained elusive. As a first step to address such challenge, this work presents programmable supratransmission using tristable nonlinearities. Through numerical simulations, we demonstrate that a mechanical chain consisting of tristable oscillators can achieve rich programmable features of supratransmission by simply tuning the tristable potential energy curve, providing new insights into how supratransmission can be controlled. The current work deepens the understanding of programmable supratransmission using multistable nonlinearities.