Advances in the Mechanical Metamaterials and Symmetry
A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Engineering and Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 44
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Mechanical metamaterials are artificially engineered systems designed with tailored microstructures to achieve unconventional mechanical functionalities. These systems often exhibit or benefit from a diverse array of symmetries in their design and responses, including spatial symmetries (mirror, rotational, and translational), temporal symmetries, combined parity-time (PT) symmetries, and more fundamentally the principle of reciprocity. The fundamental concept of symmetry plays a foundational role in governing the physical behavior and functional performance of metamaterials. For instance, frequency band gaps in periodic media can be interpreted as the consequence of spontaneous breaking of translational symmetry in the eigenmodes. Moreover, recent advances in non-Hermitian dynamics have revealed novel wave phenomena, such as unidirectional wave propagation and exceptional points, resulting from the breaking of PT symmetry. This Special Issue aims to investigate and highlight the roles of various symmetries (and their breaking) in the physics, functionalities, and design principles of metamaterials, phononic crystals, and lattice materials.
Contributions are encouraged in topics including (but not limited to) the following:
- Theoretical, computational, and experimental studies of microstructured media with different types of symmetry;
- Architectured media and applications exploiting broken symmetries (e.g., reciprocity, parity, chirality, and parity-time) for advanced mechanical functionalities;
- Design and analysis of asymmetric/aperiodic/quasiperiodic/disordered structures and their static, dynamic, or multiphysical responses;
- Non-Hermitian metamaterials, exceptional points, and unidirectional wave scattering;
- Symmetry-informed design strategies in inverse design, topology optimization, or machine learning;
- Functionalities and designs emergent from hierarchical, multiscale, or stochastic architectures.
Dr. Weidi Wang
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Symmetry is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- mechanical metamaterials
- lattice materials
- phononic crystals
- symmetry and symmetry breaking
- parity-time symmetry
- reciprocity
- chirality
- wave propagation
- scattering
- non-Hermitian mechanics
- topological phononics
- bandgap engineering
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
