Chaotic Dynamics of a Quasi-Periodically Forced Beam

A straight beam with fixed ends, forced with two frequencies is considered. By using Galerkin’s method, the equation of motion of the beam is reduced to a finite degree-of-freedom system. The resulting equation is transformed into a multi-frequency system and the averaging method is applied. It is shown, by using Melnikov’s method, that there exist transverse homoclinic orbits in the averaged system associated with the first-mode equation. This implies that chaotic motions may occur in the single-mode equation. Furthermore, the effect of higher modes and the implications of this result for the full beam motions are described.