Formation mechanism of the low-frequency locally resonant band gap in the two-dimensional ternary phononic crystals

The low-frequency band gap and the corresponding vibration modes in two-dimensional ternary locally resonant phononic crystals are restudied successfully with the lumped-mass method. Compared with the work of C. Goffaux and J. Sánchez-Dehesa (Phys. Rev. B 67 14 4301(2003)), it is shown that there exists an error of about 50% in their calculated results of the band structure, and one band is missing in their results. Moreover, the in-plane modes shown in their paper are improper, which results in the wrong conclusion on the mechanism of the ternary locally resonant phononic crystals. Based on the lumped-mass method and better description of the vibration modes according to the band gaps, the locally resonant mechanism in forming the subfrequency gaps is thoroughly analysed. The rule used to judge whether a resonant mode in the phononic crystals can result in a corresponding subfrequency gap is also verified in this ternary case.