In this paper, the global transversality and tangency in two-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems are discussed, and the exact energy increment function ($L$-function) for such nonlinear dynamical systems is presented. The Melnikov function is an approximate expression of the exact energy increment. A periodically forced, damped Duffing oscillator with a separatrix is investigated as a sampled problem. The corresponding analytical conditions for the global transversality and tangency to the separatrix are derived. Numerical simulations are carried out for illustrations of the analytical conditions. From analytical and numerical results, the simple zero of the energy increment (or the Melnikov function) may not imply that chaos exists. The conditions for the global transversality and tangency to the separatrix may be independent of the Melnikov function. Therefore, the analytical criteria for chaotic motions in nonlinear dynamical systems need to be further developed. The methodology presented in this paper is applicable to nonlinear dynamical systems without any separatrix.

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