Motion of an Unbalanced Impact Body Colliding with a Moving Belt

In the field of mechanical engineering, conveyors and moving belts are frequently used machine parts. In many working regimes, they are subjected to sudden loading, which can be a source of irregular motion in the impacting bodies and undesirable behavior in the working machine. This paper deals with a mechanical model where colisions between an impact body and a moving belt take place. The impact body is constrained by a flexible rope, the upper end of which is excited by a slider in the vertical direction. The behavior of the system was investigated in terms of its dependence on the amplitude and frequency of excitation given by the movement of the slider, and the eccentricity of the center of gravity of the impact body. Outputs of the computations indicate that different combinations of the analyzed parameters lead to high complexity of the system’s movement. The bifurcation analysis shows multiple periodic areas changed by chaotic regions. The research carried out provides more details about the behavior and properties of strongly nonlinear mechanical systems resulting from impacts and dry friction. The obtained information will enable designers to propose parameters for industrial machines that make it possible to avoid their working at undesirable operating levels.