Predictive wave engineering in polymer phononic materials

Additive manufacturing has emerged as the most accessible option for fabricating polymer-based phononic materials, enabling complex architectures for advanced wave-control applications. However, improper or oversimplified material characterization often limits predictive accuracy and experimental reproducibility in wave control. Here, we establish an experimentally validated framework that integrates experimentally characterized viscoelastic material properties with systematic design variations to achieve accurate numerical predictions and experimental validation of wave dynamics in polymer phononic materials. We use the simplest disc-ligament designs of phononic crystals, analogous to mass-spring systems, and plot condensed band diagrams to examine the sensitivity of band gaps to systematic variations in unit-cell geometry and material distribution, including controlled porosity. Finite-element simulations incorporating experimentally measured viscoelastic properties are compared with transmission experiments across multiple geometries and polymer types, achieving close agreement between predicted and measured transmission responses. Overall, these findings provide a framework for accurate prediction of wave dynamics in additively manufactured polymer phononic materials.