An experimental study of the forced response of pre- And post-critical plates

Experimental results are presented which characterize the dynamic response of homogeneous, fully clamped, rectangular plates to narrow band acoustic excitation and uniform thermal loads. Using time series, pseudo-phase projections, power spectra and auto-correlation functions, small amplitude vibrations are considered about both the pre- and post-critical states. These techniques are then employed to investigate the snap-through response. The results for snap-through suggest that the motion is temporally complex and a Lyapunov exponent calculation confirms that the motion is chaotic. Finally, a snap-through boundary is mapped in the (w, SPL) parameter space separating the regions of snap-through and no snap-through.