In this study, the dynamic instabilities of a beam, subjected to periodic short impulsive loading, are investigated using simple 2-DoF beam model. The behaviors of beam model whose axial motions are constrained are studied for the case of elastic and elastic-plastic behavior. In the case of elastic behavior, the chaotic responses due to the periodic pulse are identified, and the characteristics of the behavior are analysed by investigating the fractal attractors in the Poincare map. The short-term and long-term responses of the beam are unpredictable because of the extreme sensitivities to parameters, a hallmark of chaotic response. In the case of elastic-plastic behavior, the responses are governed by the plastic strains which occur continuously and irregularly as time increases. Thus the characteristics of the response behavior change continuously due to the plastic strain increments, and are unpredictable as well as the elastic case.