Bifurcation in planar slider–crank mechanism with revolute clearance joint

• Slider–crank mechanism behavior with revolute clearance joint has been investigated.
• Poincaré portraits are utilized to study the system response in discrete-time domain.
• Bifurcation analysis with varying clearance size is performed.
• Some stability ranges of clearance size are computed as the examples.

Generally, dynamic systems with clearance exhibit a chaotic and quasi-periodic behavior, and the main concern of the design engineers is to achieve the range of stability for such systems. In this research, nonlinear dynamic behavior of a slider–crank mechanism with clearance has been studied. Differential equations of motion are derived considering clearance in the revolute joint between the slider and connecting rod. The normal contact force developed in the journal-bearing system is calculated using the continuous contact force model proposed by Lankarani and Nikravesh. Furthermore, the incorporation of the friction effect on the clearance joint is performed using the Ambrósio model. Using the Poincaré portrait corresponding to non-autonomous systems, dynamic behavior of the mechanism is shown in discrete space, which is the criterion for the detection of chaos. Bifurcation analysis has been studied with varying clearance sizes, corresponding to two different values of crank angular velocity; then some intervals in which the periodic orbit embedded in the system response becomes stable are computed. Sensitive dependence of such multi-body mechanical systems on clearance size is also explained based on the bifurcation diagrams.