Chaos in a shape memory two-bar truss

The study of the structural response of two-bar trusses may be very helpful to understand some of the main stability characteristics of framed structures, as well as of flat arches and of many other physical phenomena associated with bifurcation buckling. This article is concerned with the dynamic response of a shape memory two-bar truss, which is an interesting example of a structural system that exhibits both kinematic and constitutive non-linearities. A polynomial constitutive model is assumed to describe the behavior of the shape memory bars. Free and forced responses are investigated. Numerical simulations show that the system can easily reach a chaotic response.