Internal Resonance in a Vibrating Beam: A Zoo of Nonlinear Resonance Peaks

In oscillating mechanical systems, nonlinearity is responsible for the departure from proportionality between the forces that sustain their motion and the resulting vibration amplitude. Such effect may have both beneficial and harmful effects in a broad class of technological applications, ranging from microelectromechanical devices to edifice structures. The dependence of the oscillation frequency on the amplitude, in particular, jeopardizes the use of nonlinear oscillators in the design of time-keeping electronic components. Nonlinearity, however, can itself counteract this adverse response by triggering a resonant interaction between different oscillation modes, which transfers the excess of energy in the main oscillation to higher harmonics, and thus stabilizes its frequency. In this paper, we examine a model for internal resonance in a vibrating elastic beam clamped at its two ends. In this case, nonlinearity occurs in the form of a restoring force proportional to the cube of the oscillation amplitude, which induces resonance between modes whose frequencies are in a ratio close to 1:3. The model is based on a representation of the resonant modes as two Duffing oscillators, coupled through cubic interactions. Our focus is put on illustrating the diversity of behavior that internal resonance brings about in the dynamical response of the system, depending on the detailed form of the coupling forces. The mathematical treatment of the model is developed at several approximation levels. A qualitative comparison of our results with previous experiments and numerical calculations on elastic beams is outlined.