Nonlinear Nonplanar Dynamics of Parametrically Excited Cantilever Beams

Abstract

Abstract The nonlinear nonplanar response of cantilever inextensional metallic beams to a principal parametric excitation of two of its “exural modes, one in each plane, is investigated. The lowest torsional frequencies of the beams considered are much larger than the frequencies of the excited modes so that the torsional inertia can be neglected. Using this condition as well as the inextensionality condition, we develop a Lagrangian whose variation leads to the two integro-partial-differential equations of Crespo da Silva and Glynn. The method of time-averaged Lagrangian is used to derive four first-order nonlinear ordinary-differential equations governing the modulation of the amplitudes and phases of the two interacting modes. The modulation equations exhibit the symmetry property found by Feng and Leal by analytically manipulating the interaction coefficients in the modulation equations obtained by Nayfeh and Pai by applying the method of multiple scales to the governing integro-partial-differential equations. A pseudo arclength scheme is used to trace the branches of the equilibrium solutions and an investigation of the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix is used to assess their stability. The equilibrium solutions experience pitchfork, saddle-node, and Hopf bifurcations. A detailed bifurcation of the dynamic solutions of the modulation equations is presented. Five branches of dynamic (periodic and chaotic) solutions were found. Two of these branches emerge from two Hopf bifurcations and the other three are isolated. The limit cycles undergo symmetry-breaking, cyclic-fold, and period-doubling bifurcations, whereas the chaotic attractors undergo attractor-merging and boundary crises.