Abstract
This study investigates the behavior of a vibro-impacting system with a rigid body mode. The model problem has been formulated as both a one-DOF and a multi-DOF piecewise linear system. The behavior of the models for a base excitation frequency range of 50–200 Hz (4.9–19.5% of the fundamental natural frequency of the in-contact case) is shown for constant base motion acceleration and displacement. It is seen that the models do not predict the same motion for the constant acceleration case, but agree quite closely for the constant displacement case. The system is capable of chaotic motion and several examples of Poincaré sections are shown which suggest the presence of a strange attractor. Future work including analytical methods of analysis for both the one- and multi-DOF systems is discussed.