COUNTERINTUITIVE QUASI-PERIODIC MOTION IN THE AUTONOMOUS VIBRATION OF CRACKED TIMOSHENKO BEAMS

The time domain behaviour of a cracked Timoshenko beam is constructed by alternation of two linear models corresponding to the open and closed condition of the crack. It might be expected that a response which is composed of the alternation of two systems with different properties would extinguish the periodicities of the constituent sub-models. The numerical studies presented illustrate the perpetuation of these features without showing any evidence for the creation of periodicities based on a common assumption of the mean period of a bilinear model. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited