Mechanical model for the generation of acoustic chaos in sonic infrared imaging

We describe a mechanical model for the generation of complex vibrations with fractional “subharmonics” from the contact between a sharply tuned ultrasonic source and a rigid object. The frequency patterns generated by the model mimic the patterns observed in samples undergoing sonic IR imaging. The output of the model is chaotic in the sense that the output appears to lack continuity with respect to the input parameters.