Effect of imperfections and damping on the type of nonlinearity of circular plates and shallow spherical shells

Cyril Touzé (1) , Cédric Camier (1) , Gaël Favraud (1) , Olivier Thomas (2)

1 DFA - Dynamique des Fluides et Acoustique
2 LMSSC - Laboratoire de Mécanique des Structures et des Systèmes Couplés

The effect of geometric imperfections and viscous damping on the type of nonlinearity (i.e., the hardening or softening behaviour) of circular plates and shallow spherical shells with free edge is here investigated. The Von Kármán large-deflection theory is used to derive the continuous models. Then, nonlinear normal modes (NNMs) are used for predicting with accuracy the coefficient, the sign of which determines the hardening or softening behaviour of the structure. The effect of geometric imperfections, unavoidable in real systems, is studied by adding a static initial component in the deflection of a circular plate. Axisymmetric as well as asymmetric imperfections are investigated, and their effect on the type of nonlinearity of the modes of an imperfect plate is documented. Transitions from hardening to softening behaviour are predicted quantitatively for imperfections having the shapes of eigenmodes of a perfect plate. The role of 2:1 internal resonance in this process is underlined. When damping is included in the calculation, it is found that the softening behaviour is generally favoured, but its effect remains limited.

Domaines: Génie mécanique [physics.class-ph]; Génie mécanique [physics.class-ph]

Cyril Touzé, Cédric Camier, Gaël Favraud, Olivier Thomas. Effect of imperfections and damping on the type of nonlinearity of circular plates and shallow spherical shells. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2008, 2008, pp.678307. ⟨10.1155/2008/678307⟩. ⟨hal-00838876⟩