Chaotic Dynamics of an Axially Accelerating Viscoelastic Beam in the Supercritical Regime

This paper focuses on the bifurcation and chaos of an axially accelerating viscoelastic beam in the supercritical regime. For the first time, the nonlinear dynamics of the system under consideration are studied via the high-order Galerkin truncation as well as the differential and integral quadrature method (DQM & IQM). The speed of the axially moving beam is assumed to be comprised of a constant mean value along with harmonic fluctuations. The transverse vibrations of the beam are governed by a nonlinear integro-partial-differential equation, which includes the finite axial support rigidity and the longitudinally varying tension due to the axial acceleration. The Galerkin truncation and the DQM & IQM are, respectively, applied to reduce the equation into a set of ordinary differential equations. Furthermore, the time history of the axially moving beam is numerically solved based on the fourth-order Runge-Kutta time discretization. Based on the numerical solutions, the phase portrait, the bifurcation diagrams and the initial value sensitivity are presented to identify the dynamical behaviors. Based on the nonlinear dynamics, the effects of the truncation terms of the Galerkin method, such as 2-term, 4-term, and 6-term, are studied by comparison with DQM & IQM.