Routes to chaos in a magneto-elastic beam

We report the results of an experimental study of a periodically forced elastic beam which swings between two stationary magnets. The beam itself has two magnets attached to it so that the system experiences strong magnetic coupling. Several routes to chaos are found including some which have not previously been reported for mechanical systems of this type. We have also investigated the effects of symmetry in the system and show that the bifurcation sets for the system exhibit systematic behaviour.