Internal resonance isa unique phenomenon in nonlinear structures. It can lead to pronounced energy transfer between vibrating modes, causing unexpected stress concentrations in local areas and posing a risk to structural integrity. This paper presents a general model updating procedure for nonlinear structures with such internal resonances using experimentally measured data. The test involves using multiple amplitudes of sinusoidal excitations to drive the structure to several required vibration amplitudes, enabling the underlying linear dynamics, uncoupled nonlinear dynamics, and internal resonances to be activated individually. The underlying linear system, uncoupled nonlinear terms, and cross-coupling terms in the dynamic equation are updated sequentially, with updating the cross-coupling terms being the most challenging task. Unlike conventional practices that heuristically pre-assume a model for the cross-coupling force terms, this paper minimises their number by using the coupling potential energies and identifies their type via an interaction map. A novel mode shape residual is then proposed to tune the coefficients of the cross-coupling terms, which allows energy transfer between coupled modes to be captured quantitatively. A diesis-like structure featuring 1:1 bending-torsion coupling was experimentally investigated using multi-level stepped-sine excitations to demonstrate the proposed model updating procedure. The vibrations of its first resonance veered from a bending-dominant motion to a bending-torsion coexisting motion as the driving forces increased, indicating strong amplitude-dependent mode shapes on the occurrence of internal resonance. The experimental data also showed that the softening and hardening trend of the torsional mode was dependent on the vibration amplitude of the bending mode, a peculiar vibration phenomenon seldom reported for realistic structures in the literature. Using the proposed model updating procedure, a two-mode coupled nonlinear model was identified from the frequency response functions and validated by comparing the backbone curves and amplitude-dependent mode shapes. Results showed that the updated model could predict the resonant vibration patterns of the structure away from and around its internal resonance with sufficient accuracy. It was also revealed that the softening and hardening behaviours of the torsional mode were attributed to different branches of Nonlinear Normal Modes (NNMs).
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