Abstract
This present work focuses on the influence of nonlinearities associated with impact on the rocking behavior of a rigid body block subjected to a two-dimensional excitation in the horizontal and vertical directions. The nonlinearities in rocking system are found to be strongly dependent on the impact between the block and the base that abruptly reduces the kinetic energy. In this study, the rocking systems of the two types are considered : The first is an undamped rocking system model that disregards the energy dissipation during the impact and the second is a damped rocking system, which incorporates energy dissipation during the impact. The response analysis is carried out by a numerical method using a non-dimensional rocking equation in which the variations in the excitation levels are considered. Chaos responses are observed over a wide range of parameter values, and particularly in the case of large vertical displacements, the chaotic characteristics are observed in the time histories, Poincare sections, the power spectral density and the largest Lyapunov exponents of the rocking responses. Complex behavior characteristics of rocking responses are illustrated by the Poincare sections.
