Nonlinear Free Vibration of Hyperelastic Beams Based on Neo-Hookean Model

The investigation of hyperelastic responses of soft materials and structures is essential for understanding of the mechanical behaviors and for the design of soft systems. In this paper, by considering both the material and geometrical nonlinearities, a new neo-Hookean model for the hyperelastic beam is developed with focus on its nonlinear free vibration with large strain deformations. The neo-Hookean model is employed to capture the large strain deformation of the hyperelastic beam. The governing equations of the hyperelastic beam are derived by using Hamilton's principle. To avoid expensive calculations for solving the nonlinear governing equations, a simplified Taylor-series expansion model is proposed. The effects of two key system parameters, i.e. the initial displacement amplitude and the slenderness ratio, on the nonlinear free vibrations of the hyperelastic beam are numerically analyzed. The bifurcation diagrams, displacement time traces, phase portraits and power spectral diagrams are presented for the nonlinear free vibrations of the hyperelastic beam. For small initial displacement amplitudes, it is found that the hyperelastic beam will undergo limit cycle oscillations, depending on the initial amplitude employed. For initial displacement amplitudes large enough, interestingly, the free vibration of the hyperelastic beam will become quasi-periodic or chaotic, which were rarely reported for the free vibration of linearly elastic beams. Also observed is the traveling wave feature of oscillating shapes of the hyperelastic beam, indicating that higher-order modes of the beam are excited even for free vibrations. All these new features in the nonlinear free vibrations of hyperelastic beams indicate that the material and geometric nonlinearities play a great role in the dynamic analysis of hyperelastic beams.