Chattering: an overlooked peculiarity of rocking motion

Complete chattering occurs when a structure undergoes theoretically infinite sequence of impacts in finite time, that eventually bring the to state persistent (continuous) contact. This study investigates conditions under which rigid rocking block complete subjected sinusoidal ground excitation. The analysis explains how acceleration amplitude excitation affects time. It also proves there exists (sinusoidal) amplitude, below motion terminates even nonzero excitation, almost independently frequency Furthermore, adopts perturbation theory and proposes an asymptotic approximation time needed for be completed, i.e. then verifies using independent semi-analytical approach. Overall, results highlight importance on dynamic response, feature nonlinear dynamics is often overlooked earthquake engineering.