Impact oscillators

Abstract

Impact oscillators are an important class of non-smooth dynamical systems whose behaviour not only exhibits typical characteristics of smooth nonlinear systems, such as generic bifurcations, multiple solutions and chaos, but also displays new phenomena. Additionally, many physical situations of practical engineering relevance have limits incorporated in their dynamic response and therefore impacts cannot be avoided. Engineers must evaluate the dangers associated with these impacts to eliminate excessive loads, reduce wear, avoid fatigue and in some cases increase passenger comfort. A full understanding of the underlying mathematics increases our ability to account for and control impacts. A brief personal review is given of the literature relating to recent advances in dynamical systems theory pertaining to impacting systems and future areas of research are highlighted.