Global bifurcations and multi-pulse chaotic dynamics for a simply supported rectangular thin plate are studied by the extended Melnikov method.The rectangular thin plate is subject to transversal and in-plane excitation.A two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear nonautonomous system governing equations of motion for the rectangular thin plate is derived by the von Karman type equation and the Galerkin approach.A one-toone internal resonance is considered.An averaged equation is obtained with a multi-scale method.After transforming the averaged equation into a standard form,the extended Melnikov method is used to show the existence of multi-pulse chaotic dynamics,which can be used to explain the mechanism of modal interactions of thin plates.A method for calculating the Melnikov function is given without an explicit analytical expression of homoclinic orbits.Furthermore,restrictions on the damping,excitation,and detuning parameters are obtained,under which the multi-pulse chaotic dynamics is expected.The results of numerical simulations are also given to indicate the existence of small amplitude multi-pulse chaotic responses for the rectangular thin plate.
