Multimode Interactions in Suspended Cables

Abstract

We investigate the nonlinear nonplanar responses of suspended cables to external excitations. The equations of motion governing such systems contain quadratic and cubic nonlinearities, which may result in two-to-one and one-to-one internal resonances. The sag-to-span ratio of the cable considered is such that the natural frequency of the first symmetric in-plane mode is at first crossover. Hence, the first symmetric in-plane mode is involved in a one-to-one internal resonance with the first antisymmetric in-plane and out-of-plane modes and, simultaneously, in a two-to-one internal resonance with the first symmetric out-of-plane mode. Under these resonance conditions, we analyze the response when the first symmetric in-plane mode is harmonically excited at primary resonance. First, we express the two governing equations of motion as four first-order (i.e., state-space formulation) partial-differential equations. Then, we directly apply the methods of multiple scales and reconstitution to determine a second-order uniform asymptotic expansion of the solution, including the modulation equations governing the dynamics of the phases and amplitudes of the interacting modes. Then, we investigate the behavior of the equilibrium and dynamic solutions as the forcing amplitude and resonance detunings are slowly varied and determine the bifurcations they may undergo.