MEASUREMENT OF CHAOTIC VIBRATION IN A SYMMETRICALLY PIECEWISE-LINEAR OSCILLATOR

The paper describes a measurement of chaotic oscillations occurring in a base excited symmetrically bilinear oscillator. The details of the current experimental rig and possible modifications to improve the mea surement accuracy are explained. The regions of chaotic motion predict ed theoretically were confirmed by the experimental results arranged i nto bifurcation diagrams, which were obtained by numerical and experim ental means. Clearance and modulus of the external force were used as branching parameters. The discussion of the system dynamics is based o n bifurcation diagrams, Lissajous curves and power spectra. The invest igated sq stem tended to be periodic for large clearances and chaotic for small ones. This picture is repeated for the modulus variation, wh ere periodic motion occurred for its small values and chaos dominated for larger forcing. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .