Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Nonlinear Phenomena in a Stochastically Excited Beam System with Impact

The response of strongly nonlinear dynamic systems to stochastic excitation exhibits many interesting characteristics. In this paper, a strongly nonlinear beam-impact system under broad and small banded, Gaussian noise excitations is investigated. The response of this system is investigated numerically as well as experimentally. The emphasis lies on frequency domain characteristics. Phenomena like multiple resonance frequencies and stochastic equivalents of harmonic and subharmonic solutions are found. Improved understanding of these stochastic response characteristics is obtained by comparing them to nonlinear periodic response features of the system. It is shown that these stochastic response phenomena can provide information on the periodic response characteristics of the system. The observed stochastic characteristics have more general value and meaning than mere application to this system suggests.