Abstract:

Unavoidable clearances exist in the space structure composed of elastic rods and beams so that the free vibro impacts between the flexible components occur when the structure is subject to any environmental disturbance. As a preliminary study, this paper deals with the free vibro impacts between two flexible beams. By means of the Hertz formula for contact force and the Galerkin approach, the pair of impacting beams is simplified to an impacting system of two degrees of freedom. After a series of transforms, the free vibro impact of the system is characterized by two variables spanning a torus. The numerical simulation showed that the nonlinear modes of the system do not keep the similarity when the vibro impacts become strong.

Key words: vibro-impact, inter na l r esonance, mode