Global bifurcations in the motion of parametrically excited thin plates

In this paper we investigate global bifurcations in the motion of parametrically excited, damped thin plates. Using new mathematical results by Kovačič and Wiggins in finding homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits to fixed points that are created in a resonance resulting from perturbation, we are able to obtain explicit conditions under which Silnikov homoclinic orbits occur. Furthermore, we confirm our theoretical predictions by numerical simulations.