Abstract: The nonlinear planar response of cantilever metallic beams to combination parametric and external subcombination resonances is investigated, taking into account the effects of cubic geometric and inertia nonlinearities. The beams considered here are assumed to have large length‐to‐width aspect ratios and thin rectangular cross sections. Hence, the effects of shear deformations and rotatory inertia are neglected. For the case of combination parametric resonance, a two‐mode Galerkin discretization along with Hamilton’s extended principle is used to obtain two second‐order nonlinear ordinary‐differential equations of motion and associated boundary conditions. Then, the method of multiple scales is applied to obtain a set of four first‐order nonlinear ordinary‐differential equations governing the modulation of the amplitudes and phases of the two excited modes. For the case of subcombination resonance, the method of multiple scales is applied directly to the Lagrangian and virtual‐work term. Then using Hamilton’s extended principle, we obtain a set of four first‐order nonlinear ordinary‐differential equations governing the amplitudes and phases of the two excited modes. In both cases, the modulation equations are used to generate frequency‐ and force‐response curves. We found that the trivial solution exhibits a jump as it undergoes a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation. Similarly, the nontrivial solutions also exhibit jumps as they undergo saddle‐node bifurcations.
