An Analytical Approximation Method for Strongly Nonlinear Oscillators

An analytical method is proposed to get the amplitude-frequency and the phase-frequency characteristics of free/forced oscillators with nonlinear restoring force. The nonlinear restoring force is expressed as a spring with varying stiffness that depends on the vibration amplitude. That is, for stationary vibration, the restoring force linearly depends on the displacement, but the stiffness of the spring varies with the vibration amplitude for nonstationary oscillations. The varied stiffness is constructed by means of the first and second averaged derivatives of the restoring force with respect to the displacement. Then, this stiffness gives the amplitude frequency and the phase frequency characteristics of the oscillator. Various examples show that this method can be applied extensively to oscillators with nonlinear restoring force, and that the solving process is extremely simple

Colored noise in oscillators. Phase-amplitude analysis and a method to avoid the Ito-Stratonovich dilemma

We investigate the effect of time-correlated noise on the phase fluctuations of nonlinear oscillators. The analysis is based on a methodology that transforms a system subject to colored noise, modeled as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, into an equivalent system subject to white Gaussian noise. A description in terms of phase and amplitude deviation is given for the transformed system. Using stochastic averaging technique, the equations are reduced to a phase model that can be analyzed to characterize phase noise. We find that phase noise is a drift-diffusion process, with a noise-induced frequency shift related to the variance and to the correlation time of colored noise. The proposed approach improves the accuracy of previous phase reduced models

The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem: 50 years of progress

A brief review of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) paradox is given, together with its suggested resolutions and its relation to other physical problems. We focus on the ideas and concepts that have become the core of modern nonlinear mechanics, in their historical perspective. Starting from the first numerical results of FPU, both theoretical and numerical findings are discussed in close connection with the problems of ergodicity, integrability, chaos and stability of motion. New directions related to the Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum systems of interacting Bose-particles are also considered.Comment: 48 pages, no figures, corrected and accepted for publicatio

A moment-equation-copula-closure method for nonlinear vibrational systems subjected to correlated noise

We develop a moment equation closure minimization method for the inexpensive approximation of the steady state statistical structure of nonlinear systems whose potential functions have bimodal shapes and which are subjected to correlated excitations. Our approach relies on the derivation of moment equations that describe the dynamics governing the two-time statistics. These are combined with a non-Gaussian pdf representation for the joint response-excitation statistics that has i) single time statistical structure consistent with the analytical solutions of the Fokker-Planck equation, and ii) two-time statistical structure with Gaussian characteristics. Through the adopted pdf representation, we derive a closure scheme which we formulate in terms of a consistency condition involving the second order statistics of the response, the closure constraint. A similar condition, the dynamics constraint, is also derived directly through the moment equations. These two constraints are formulated as a low-dimensional minimization problem with respect to unknown parameters of the representation, the minimization of which imposes an interplay between the dynamics and the adopted closure. The new method allows for the semi-analytical representation of the two-time, non-Gaussian structure of the solution as well as the joint statistical structure of the response-excitation over different time instants. We demonstrate its effectiveness through the application on bistable nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom energy harvesters with mechanical and electromagnetic damping, and we show that the results compare favorably with direct Monte-Carlo Simulations

Refined Analytical Approximations to Limit Cycles for Non-Linear Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Systems

This paper presents analytical higher order approximations to limit cycles of an autonomous multi-degree-of-freedom system based on an integro-differential equation method for obtaining periodic solutions to nonlinear differential equations. The stability of the limit cycles obtained was then investigated using a method for carrying out Floquet analysis based on developments to extensions of the method for solving Hill's Determinant arising in analysing the Mathieu equation, which have previously been reported in the literature. The results of the Floquet analysis, together with the limit cycle predictions, have then been used to provide some estimates of points on the boundary of the domain of attraction of stable equilibrium points arising from a sub-critical Hopf bifurcation. This was achieved by producing a local approximation to the stable manifold of the unstable limit cycle that occurs. The integro-differential equation to be solved for the limit cycles involves no approximations. These only arise through the iterative approach adopted for its solution in which the first approximation is that which would be obtained from the harmonic balance method using only fundamental frequency terms. The higher order approximations are shown to give significantly improved predictions for the limit cycles for the cases considered. The Floquet analysis based approach to predicting the boundary of domains of attraction met with some success for conditions just following a sub-critical Hopf bifurcation. Although this study has focussed on cubic non-linearities, the method presented here could equally be used to refine limit cycle predictions for other non-linearity types.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Stationary and non-stationary resonance dynamics of the finite chain of weakly coupled pendula

We discuss new phenomena of energy localization and transition to chaos in the finite system of coupled pendula (which is a particular case of the Frenkel-Kontorova model), without any restrictions on the amplitudes of oscillations. The direct significant applications of this fundamental model comprise numerous physical systems. In the infinite and continuum limit the considered model is reduced to integrable sine-Gordon equation or certain non-integrable generalizations of it. In this limit, the chaotization is absent, and the energy localization is indicated by the existence of soliton-like solutions (kinks and breathers). As for more realistic finite models, analytical approaches are lacking, with the exception of cases limited to two and three pendula. We propose a new approach to the problem based on the recently developed Limiting Phase Trajectory (LPT) concept in combination with a semi-inverse method. The analytical predictions of the con-ditions providing transition to energy localization are confirmed by numerical simulation. It is shown that strongly nonlinear effects in finite chains tend to disap- pear in the infinite limit

Supersonic Discrete Kink-Solitons and Sinusoidal Patterns with "Magic" wavenumber in Anharmonic Lattices

The sharp pulse method is applied to Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) and Lennard-Jones (LJ) anharmonic lattices. Numerical simulations reveal the presence of high energy strongly localized ``discrete'' kink-solitons (DK), which move with supersonic velocities that are proportional to kink amplitudes. For small amplitudes, the DK's of the FPU lattice reduce to the well-known ``continuous'' kink-soliton solutions of the modified Korteweg-de Vries equation. For high amplitudes, we obtain a consistent description of these DK's in terms of approximate solutions of the lattice equations that are obtained by restricting to a bounded support in space exact solutions with sinusoidal pattern characterized by the ``magic'' wavenumber $k=2\pi/3$. Relative displacement patterns, velocity versus amplitude, dispersion relation and exponential tails found in numerical simulations are shown to agree very well with analytical predictions, for both FPU and LJ lattices.Comment: Europhysics Letters (in print