An evaluation of the Lyapunov characteristic exponent of chaotic continuous systems

A procedure to calculate the Lyapunov characteristic exponent of the response of structural continuous systems, discretized using nite element methods, is proposed. The Lyapunov characteristic exponent can be used to characterize the asymptotic stability of the system dynamic response, and it is frequently employed to identify a chaotic behaviour. The proposed procedure can also be used in the stability characterization of uid–structure interaction systems in which the focus of the analysis is on the behaviour of the structural part