ON THE RESPONSE OF AN ELASTIC BEAM TO A PERIODIC EXCITATION

We report the results of an experimental study of the buckling of an e lastic strut under periodic excitation. One end of the strut is held f ixed while the other end is periodically displaced. Snap through betwe en two buckled configurations is observed at critical settings of the frequency and amplitude of the drive. It is found, perhaps rather surp risingly, that the dynamical motion is typically high-dimensional in t his simple mechanical system. This behaviour is somewhat enigmatic sin ce many aspects of such systems are usually modelled using low order D uffing type models. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .