On chaotic oscillations of a laminated composite cylinder subject to periodic application of temperature

In the present study, we explore and confirm the chaotic behaviour of a laminated composite cylinder subjected to a rapid periodic heat load. The laminated cylinder comprises eight layers of carbon-epoxy material and is supported by end diaphragms. The analysis is performed using the natural-mode finite element method. An irregular signal and an attractor is obtained. Taken's method is used to reconstruct the attractor. For the time series, the largest Lyapunov exponents and the correlation dimension are computed. Various tests are performed in order to distinguish chaos from noise. Thus the proof for the existence of chaos is formally established. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.