On the escape of a resonantly excited couple of particles from a potential well

Escape dynamics of a damped two particles system in a truncated potential well under bi-harmonic excitation are investigated. It is assumed that excitation frequencies are tuned to the modal natural frequency of the relative motion and to the modal frequency of the centre of mass on the bottom of the potential well. Although the escape is an essentially non-stationary process, the critical force strongly depends on the stationary amplitude of the relative vibrations within the pair of masses. The characteristic escape curve for the critical force moves up with the increasing relative vibrations at least for the investigated potentials.