Discontinuous fold bifurcations in mechanical systems

Summary  This paper treats discontinuous fold bifurcations of periodic solutions of discontinuous systems. It is shown how jumps in the fundamental solution matrix lead to jumps of the Floquet multipliers of periodic solutions. A Floquet multiplier of a discontinuous system can jump through the unit circle, causing a discontinuous bifurcation. Numerical examples are treated, which show discontinuous fold bifurcations. A discontinuous fold bifurcation can connect stable branches to branches with infinitely unstable solutions. Received 20 September 2000; accepted for publication 26 June 2001