Chaotic and bifurcation for a simply-supported thermo-mechanical coupling circular plate with variable thickness

This paper presents an approach to characterize the conditions that can possibly lead to chaotic motion for a simply supported large deflection circular plate of thermo-mechanical coupling by utilizing the criterion of the maximum Lyapunov exponent. The governing partial differential equation of the simply supported large deflection circular plate of thermo-mechanical coupling is first derived and simplified to a set of three ordinary differential equations by the Galerkin method. Several different features including time history, Power spectra, phase plot, Poincare map and bifurcation diagram are then numerically computed. These features are used to characterize the dynamic behavior of the plate subjected various geometric and excitation conditions. Numerical examples are presented to verify the validity of the conditions that lead to chaotic motion and the effectiveness of the proposed modeling approach. The modeling results of numerical simulation indicate that the chaotic motion may occurs in the lateral loads f = 2.5, eta(1) = 1.1, beta = 0.5, delta = 0.01 and epsilon(infinity) = 0.0007. As the thermo-elastic damping is great than a critical value, the dynamic motion of the thermal-couple plate is periodic. As the thickness parameter beta of the concave circular plate is great than a critical value, the motion of the plate is periodic. The modeling result thus obtained by using the method proposed in this paper can be employed to predict the instability induced by the dynamics of the thermo-mechanical coupling circular plate in large deflection. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.