Periodic motions and resonances of impact oscillators

Bilinear oscillators – the oscillators whose springs have different stiffnesses in compression and tension – model a wide range of phenomena. A limiting case of bilinear oscillator with infinite stiffness in compression – the impact oscillator – is studied here. We investigate a special set of impact times – the eigenset, which corresponds to the solution of the homogeneous equation, i.e. the oscillator without the driving force. We found that this set and its subsets are stable with respect to variation of initial conditions. Furthermore, amongst all periodic sets of impact times with the period commensurate with the period of driving force, the eigenset is the only one which can support resonances, in particular the multi-‘harmonic’ resonances. Other resonances should produce non-periodic sets of impact times. This funding indicates that the usual simplifying assumption [e.g., S.W. Shaw, P.J. Holmes, A periodically forced piecewise linear oscillator, Journal of Sound and Vibration 90 (1983) 129–155] that the times between impacts are commensurate with the period of the driving force does not always hold. We showed that for the first sub-‘harmonic resonance’ – the resonance achieved on a half frequency of the main resonance – the set of impact times is asymptotically close to the eigenset. The envelope of the oscillations in this resonance increases as a square root of time, opposite to the linear increase characteristic of multi-‘harmonic’ resonances. ► We introduce the eigenset of impact times which characterises free oscillator. ► The eigenset and its subsets are stable with respect to variation of initial conditions. ► The eigenset is the only one which can support resonances, in particular the multi-‘harmonic’ resonances. ► For the first sub-‘harmonic’ resonance the set of impact times is asymptotically close to the eigenset. ► The envelope of the oscillations in this resonance increases as a square root of time.