Abstract: Instrument panel is a kind of commonly used supporting structure of electronic manufacture. A familiar structure is damping sandwich panel using metal and damping material. Honeycombed panel or metal plate is also used sometime. Usual design, analysis and even finite element computation would regard the dynamic response characteristics of these structures as linearity. However, sine-scanning frequency vibration and stochastic vibration show that the dynamic response characterstics of three different damping instrument panels are nonlinear. Some nonlinear phenomena such as frequency response and jumping response are observed. Qualitative analysis of the variation rule and reason of these phenomena is discussed from the view point of nonlinear structure. All of these have proved that the linear theory has some limitation in application, all these contribute reference to the design of engineering structure.

Key words: Instrument panel, Nonlinearity, Stochastic vibration