A variational method is introduced to study the propagation of elastic waves in two-dimensional periodic systems. First, it has been applied to a binary system consisting of an array of high-density cylinders in an epoxy background, where the advantages of the method are pointing out in regard with the well-known plane-wave expansion formalism. Second, a comprehensive study is performed for the two-dimensional counterpart of the ternary systems recently studied by Liu et al. [Z. Liu et al., Science 289, 1734 (2000)]. Numerical simulations predict that subfrequency gaps also appear because of the soft polymer that coats the cylinders. A simple mechanical model is introduced to give a physical insight of the phenomenon responsible for our findings.

• Received 19 October 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.67.144301