REGULAR ORBITS EXHIBITING MULTIPLE IMPACT CHARACTERISTICS FROM A CRACKED BEAM UNDER SINUSOIDAL EXCITATION

Previous work by the authors and co-workers has predicted the occurren ce of multiple impacts a hen a cracked beam was subject to sinusoidal excitation. A limited amount of experimental evidence, indicating comp lex periodic trajectories, was observed in an earlier study but limita tions in the instrumentation made positive identification of impulsive events impossible. The payer presents observations of regular orbits which clearly contain multiple impulsive events. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.