Experimental investigation of colored noise in stochastic resonance of a bistable beam

•We present an experimental study of a bistable beam excited by colored noise.•Analytical methods for underdamped systems are compared with experimental results.•Analytical methods are adapted to take into account the modal mass of the system.•An alternative approach is proposed to adjust analytical methods for colored noise.

This paper describes an experimental investigation of stochastic resonance in a bistable, composite beam excited by colored noise. Experimental results for average up-crossing period, spectral power amplification (SPA), and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are compared with analytical methods for underdamped systems. These analytical methods include expressions developed from Kramers, Melnikov, and two-state theory. The effect of a modal mass on the analytical expressions is explored. Finally, an alternative approach for calculating the effect of a colored noise spectrum on the SPA and SNR of underdamped systems is proposed.