Amplitude response, Melnikov's criteria, and chaos occurrence in a Duffing's system subjected to an external periodic excitation with a variable shape.

The present study considers the nonlinear dynamics of a Duffing oscillator under a symmetric potential subjected to a pulse-type excitation with a deformable shape. Our attention is focused on the effects of the external excitation shape parameter r and its period. The frequency response of the system is derived by using a semi-analytical approach.