Among the wide diversity of nonlinear mechanical systems, it is possible to distinguish a representative class of the systems which may be characterised by the presence of threshold nonlinear positional forces. Under particular configurations, such systems demonstrate a sudden change in the behaviour of elastic and dissipative forces. Mathematical study of such systems involves an analysis of equations of motion containing large-factored nonlinear terms which are associated with the above threshold nonlinearity. Due to this, we distinguish such discontinuous systems from the much wider class...

I don t mind your thinking slowly, I mind your publishing faster than you think. Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) Technologies that use high frequency (ultrasonic) vibration to intensify processes are gaining wide recognition in scienti?c and industrial envir- ments. By superimposing high frequency vibration, the basic mechanical - haviour of many processesand materialsis seen to be transformed.This leads to the developmentof newmachines and processeswith advancedcharacter- tics. Despite the fact that ultrasonic technology has been employed for many years, there is no generalised understanding of...