This work investigates wave attenuation and dissipation mechanisms in viscoelastic phononic crystals (VPCs) having different inclusion types in a long-wavelength regime. After investigating the intrinsic damping properties of VPCs for different inclusion sizes and materials, we carried out wave simulations revealing the energy dissipation by a finite VPC structure inserted inside an elastic medium. The simulations, supported by physical reasoning, showed that air-and metal-embedded VPCs can indeed dissipate more wave energy than pure viscoelastic media in low and high frequency ranges, respectively. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4795285clos
