Bifurcations and chaos of an inclined cable

Abstract

The nonlinear behavior of an inclined cable subjected to a harmonic excitation is investigated in this paper. The Galerkin’s method is applied to the partial differential governing equations to obtain a two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear system subjected to harmonic excitation. The nonlinear systems in the presence of both external and 1:1 internal resonances are transformed to the averaged equations by using the method of averaging. The averaged equations are numerically examined to obtain the steady-state responses and chaotic solutions. Five cascades of period-doubling bifurcations leading to chaotic solutions, 3-periodic solutions leading to chaotic solution, boundary crisis phenomena, as well as the Shilnikov mechanism for chaos, are observed. In order to study the global dynamics of an inclined cable, after determining the averaged equations of motion in a suitable form, a new global perturbation technique developed by Kovacic and Wiggins is used. This technique provides analytical results for the critical parameter values at which the dynamical system, through the Shilnikov type homoclinic orbits, possesses a Smale horseshoe type of chaos.