Global bifurcation analysis and chaos of an arch structure with parametric and forced excitation

The global bifurcations and chaotic motions are investigated analytically for an arch structure with parametric and forced excitation. The critical curves separating the chaotic and non-chaotic regions are drawn, which show that the system in the case of 1:1 resonance is more easily chaotically excited than the case of 1:2 resonance. There exist “uncontrollable regions” or “chaotic bands” for the system as the natural frequency varies. There also exists a “controllable frequency” for the system with linear and cubic parametric excitation. The system can be chaotically excited through infinite subharmonic bifurcations of odd/even orders. Numerical results agree with the analytical ones.