Multi-pulse chaotic dynamics of non-autonomous nonlinear system for a laminated composite piezoelectric rectangular plate

The global bifurcations and multi-pulse chaotic dynamics of a simply supported laminated composite piezoelectric rectangular thin plate under combined parametric and transverse excitations are investigated in this paper for the first time. The formulas of the laminated composite piezoelectric rectangular plate are derived by using the von Karman-type equation, the Reddy's third-order shear deformation plate theory and the Galerkin's approach. The extended Melnikov method is improved to enable us to analyze directly the non-autonomous nonlinear dynamical system, which is applied to the non-autonomous governing equations of motion for the laminated composite piezoelectric rectangular thin plate. The results obtained here indicate that multi-pulse chaotic motions can occur in the laminated composite piezoelectric rectangular thin plate. Numerical simulation is also employed to find the multi-pulse chaotic motions of the laminated composite piezoelectric rectangular thin plate.