In this article, a mechanical 1-degree-of-freedom oscillator with harmonic forcing and impacts was analysed both numerically and experimentally. A special attention was paid to the mathematical modelling and realistic numerical simulations of a real system. The developed experimental rig consists of a cart mounted on a guide, connected with springs to the support, and equipped with one-sided stiff limiter of motion. The cart was excited by an unbalanced disc mounted on the shaft of a stepper motor. Modelling was focused on the mathematical description of the impact process, where soft obstacle with Hertzian stiffness was assumed and different forms of non-linear damping were tested, including original modifications of the already used models. Model parameters are identified based on two experimental solutions corresponding to free vibrations – with and without impacts. Then, the model was validated by means of experimental and numerical analysis of bifurcation dynamics of the forced system.

The paper is devoted to the study of harmonically forced impacting oscillator. The physical model for oscillator is a cart on a guide connected to the support with springs and excited by the stepper motor. The support also is provided with limiter of motion. The mathematical model for this system is defined with the second-order piecewise smooth differential equation. Model’s nonlinearity is connected with the incorporation of dry friction and generalized Hertz contact law. Analyzing the classical Poincare sections and inter-impact sequences obtained experimentally and numerically, the bifurcations and statistical properties of periodic, multi-periodic, and chaotic regimes were examined. The development of impact-adding regime as a new nonlinear phenomenon when the forcing frequency varies was observed.

In this paper, we have shown an electronic circuit equivalence of a mechanical system consisting of two oscillators coupled with each other. The mechanical design has the effects of the magnetic spring force resistance force, and the spring constant of the system is periodically varying. We have shown that the system’s state variables, such as the displacements and the velocities, under the effects of different forces, lead to some nonlinear behaviors, like a transition from the fixed point attractors to the chaotic attractors through the periodic and quasi-periodic oscillations. We have verified those numerically obtained phenomena using the analog electronic circuit of this mechanical system.