Section: New Results

Nonsmooth modes in chains of impact oscillators

Participants : Vincent Acary, Guillaume James, Franck Pérignon.

Chains of impact oscillators arise for example as finite-element models of thin oscillating mechanical structures (a string under tension or a clamped beam) contacting rigid obstacles. Nonlinear periodic waves are observed in experiments on such systems, but relatively little is known from a theoretical point of view on their existence and stability. In 2008, Gendelman and Manevitch have analyzed the existence and stability of nonlinear localized modes (breathers) for discrete linear chains with a single node undergoing rigid impacts. In this work, we introduce a numerical method allowing to compute branches of time-periodic solutions when an arbitrary number of nodes undergo rigid impacts without energy dissipation. For this purpose, we reformulate the search of periodic solutions as a boundary value problem incorporating unilateral constraints. We illustrate this numerical approach by computing different families of breathers and nonlinear normal modes. Our method is much more effective than a numerical continuation of periodic solutions based on compliant models, which requires to integrate stiff differential equations and lead to costly numerical continuation. These results have been submitted to the ENOC 2014 conference.