On the nonlinear normal modes of free vibration of piecewise linear systems

A modification of the Shaw–Pierre nonlinear normal modes is suggested in order to analyze the vibrations of a piecewise linear mechanical systems with finite degrees of freedom. The use of this approach allows one to reduce to twice the dimension of the nonlinear algebraic equations system for nonlinear normal modes calculations in comparison with systems obtained by previous researchers. Two degrees of freedom and fifteen degrees of freedom nonlinear dynamical systems are investigated numerically by using nonlinear normal modes.