Nonlinear dynamics of a sliding beam on two supports under sinusoidal excitation

This study deals with the nonlinear dynamics associated with large deformation of a beam sliding on two-knife edge supports underextemal excitation. The beam is referred to as a Gospodnetic-Frisch-Fay beam, after the researchers who reported its static deformation in closed form. The freedom of the beam to slide on its supports imparts a nonlinear characteristic to the force-deflection response. The restoring elastic force of the beam possesses characteristics similar to those of the roll-restoring moment of ships. The Gospodnetic-Frisch-Fay exact solution is given in terms of elliptic functions. A curve fit of the exact solution up to eleventh-order is constructed to establish the governing equation of motion under external excitation. The dynamic stability of the unperturbed beam is examined for the damped and undamped cases. The undamped case reveals periodic orbits and one homoclinic orbit depending on the value of the initial conditions. The response to a sinusoidal excitation at a frequency below the linear natural frequency is numerically estimated for different excitation amplitude and different values of initial conditions covered by the area of the homoclinic orbit. The safe basins of attraction are plotted for different values of excitation amplitude. It is found that the safe region of operation is reduced as the excitation amplitude increases.