Grazing Bifurcations in Impact Oscillators

Impact oscillators demonstrate interesting dynamical features. In particular, new types of bifurcations take place as such systems evolve from a nonimpacting to an impacting state (or vice versa), as a system parameter varies smoothly. These bifurcations are called grazing bifurcations. In this paper we analyze the different types of grazing bifurcations that can occur in a simple sinusoidally forced oscillator system in the presence of friction and a hard wall with which the impacts take place. The general picture we obtain exemplifies universal features that are predicted to occur in a wide variety of impact oscillator systems.