Chaotic responses of curved plate under sinusoidal loading

In the present investigation, the nonlinear dynamic buckling of a curved plate subjected to sinusoidal loading is examined. By the theoretical analyses, a highly nonlinear snap-through motion of a clampedfreeclampedfree plate and its effect on the overall vibration response are investigated. The problem is reduced to that of a single degree of freedom system with the Rayleigh-Ritz procedure. The resulting nonlinear governing equation is solved using Runge-Kutta (RK.-4) numerical integration method. The snap-through boundaries, which vary with different damping coefficient and linear circular frequency of the flat plate are studied and given in terms of force and displacement. The relationships between static and dynamic responses at the start of a snap-through motion are also predicted. The analysis brings out various characteristic features of the phenomenon, i.e. l) small oscillation about the buckled position-softening spring type motion, 2) chaotic motion of intermittent snap-through, and 3) large oscillation of continuous snap-through motion crossing the two buckled positions-hardening spring type. The responses of buckled plate were found to be greatly affected by the snap-through motion. Therefore, better understanding of the snap-through motion is needed to predict the full dynamic response of a curved plate.