Chaotic motion of a two-frequency forced oscillator with dry friction

In this paper, the dynamic behavior of a dry friction oscillator subjected to simultaneous self- and external excitations is studied. The dry friction in the system follows the classical Coulomb's law, and the external excitation consists of two harmonic forces with different frequencies. The focus of the paper is laid on bifurcation analysis to gain insight into the influence of the two-frequency excitation upon the qualitative features of system dynamics. Numerical simulations are performed and the simulation results are visualized by means of bifurcation diagrams, Poincaré sections and Lyapunov exponents. New and interesting conclusions are reached from the study. It is shown that small excitation frequencies and amplitudes tend to cause chaos in the system, whereas large excitation amplitudes can induce only periodic motions. Furthermore, it is found that the probability of the occurrence of periodic motions increases, as the ratio between the two excitation frequencies increases.