EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATION OF NONLINEAR VIBRATIONS USING A CLOSED-LOOP VIBRATION SYSTEM

This paper presents experimental observation of nonlinear vibrations in the response of a flexible cantilever beam to transverse harmonic base excitations around its flexural mode frequencies. In the experimental setup, instead of manual control of the signal excitation frequency and amplitude, a closed-loop vibration system is used to keep the excitation amplitude constant during the frequency sweep and to increase confidence in the experimental results. The experimental results show the presence of the third mode in the response when varying the excitation frequency around the fourth mode. The frequency-response curves, response spectrum and Poincare plots were used for characterization of nonlinear dynamic behaviour of the beam.