Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

When A Mechanical Model Goes Nonlinear, Lisa D. Humphreys, P. J. Mckenna

Faculty Publications

This paper had its origin in a curious discovery by the first author in research performed with an undergraduate student. The following odd fact was noticed: when a mechanical model of a suspension bridge (linear near equilibrium but allowed to slacken at large distance in one direction) is shaken with a low-frequency periodic force, several different periodic responses can result, many with high-frequency components.