On Stability of the Inverted Pendulum Motion with a Vibrating Suspension Point

Under study is the stability of the inverted pendulum motion whose suspension point vibrates according to a sinusoidal law along a straight line having a small angle with the vertical. Formulating and using the contracting mapping principle and the criterion of asymptotic stability in terms of solvability of a special boundary value problem for the Lyapunov differential equation, we prove that the pendulum performs stable periodic movements under sufficiently small amplitude of oscillations of the suspension point and sufficiently high frequency of oscillations.     

The dynamics of a spherical pendulum with a vibrating suspension

The motion of a spherical pendulum whose point of suspension performs high-frequency vertical harmonic oscillations of small amplitude is investigated. It is shown that two types of motion of the pendulum exist when it performs high-frequency oscillations close to conical motions, for which the pendulum makes a constant angle with the vertical and rotates around it with constant angular velocity. For the motions of the first and second types the centre of gravity of the pendulum is situated below and above the point of suspension, respectively. A bifurcation curve is obtained, which divides the plane of the parameters of the problem into two regions. In one of these only the first type of motion can exist, while in the other, in addition to the first type of motion, there are two motions of the second type. The problem of the stability of these motion of the pendulum, close to conical, is solved. It is shown that the first type of motion is stable, while of the second type of motion, only the motion with the higher position of the centre of gravity is stable.     

The conditions for loss of stability of the rotation of a dynamically symmetrical rigid body suspended on a string with parametric perturbations

A dynamically symmetrical rigid body suspended on a string is considered. The suspension point performs periodic oscillations. The loss of stability of the system when it performs high-frequency rotations around the axis of dynamic symmetry is investigated. The sufficient conditions for loss of stability are obtained.     

Resonant periodic motions of Hamiltonian systems with one degree of freedom when the Hamiltonian is degenerate

The motions of a non-autonomous Hamiltonian system with one degree of freedom which is periodic in time and where the Hamiltonian contains a small parameter is considered. The origin of coordinates of the phase space is the equilibrium position of the unperturbed or complete system, which is stable in the linear approximation. It is assumed that there is degeneracy in the unperturbed Hamiltonian when account is taken of terms no higher than the fourth degree (the frequency of the small linear oscillations depends on the amplitude) and, in this case, one of the resonances of up to the fourth order inclusive is realized in the system. Model Hamiltonians are constructed for each case of resonance and a qualitative investigation of the motions of the model system is carried out. Using Poincaré's theory of periodic motions and KAM-theory, a rigorous solution is given of the problem of the existence, bifurcations and stability of the periodic motions of the initial system, which are analytic with respect to fractional powers of the small parameter. The resonant periodic motions (in the case of the degeneracy being considered) of a spherical pendulum with an oscillating suspension point are investigated as an application.     

The stability of the equilibrium of a pendulum for vertical oscillations of the point of suspension

The motion of a pendulum, the point of suspension of which is subject to vertical harmonic oscillations of arbitrary frequency and amplitude, is considered. A complete rigorous solution of the non-linear problem of the stability of the relative positions of equilibrium of the pendulum along the vertical is given.     

The stability of the plane periodic motions of a symmetrical rigid body with a fixed point

A rigorous non-linear analysis of the orbital stability of plane periodic motions (pendulum oscillations and rotations) of a dynamically symmetrical heavy rigid body with one fixed point is carried out. It is assumed that the principal moments of inertia of the rigid body, calculated for the fixed point, are related by the same equation as in the Kovalevskaya case, but here no limitations are imposed on the position of the mass centre of the body. In the case of oscillations of small amplitude and in the case of rotations with high angular velocities, when it is possible to introduce a small parameter, the orbital stability is investigated analytically. For arbitrary values of the parameters, the non-linear problem of orbital stability is reduced to an analysis of the stability of a fixed point of the simplectic mapping, generated by the system of equations of perturbed motion. The simplectic mapping coefficients are calculated numerically, and from their values, using well-known criteria, conclusions are drawn regarding the orbital stability or instability of the periodic motion. It is shown that, when the mass centre lies on the axis of dynamic symmetry (the case of Lagrange integrability), the well-known stability criteria are inapplicable. In this case, the orbital instability of the periodic motions is proved using Chetayev's theorem. The results of the analysis are presented in the form of stability diagrams in the parameter plane of the problem.     

Nonlinear Oscillations of a Spring Pendulum at the 1 : 1 : 2 Resonance: Theory,Experiment, and Physical Analogies

Nonlinear spatial oscillations of a material point on a weightless elastic suspension are considered. The frequency of vertical oscillations is assumed to be equal to the doubled swinging frequency (the 1 : 1 : 2 resonance). In this case, vertical oscillations are unstable, which leads to the transfer of the energy of vertical oscillations to the swinging energy of the pendulum. Vertical oscillations of the material point cease, and, after a certain period of time, the pendulum starts swinging in a vertical plane. This swinging is also unstable, which leads to the back transfer of energy to the vertical oscillation mode, and again vertical oscillations occur. However, after the second transfer of the energy of vertical oscillations to the pendulum swinging energy, the apparent plane of swinging is rotated through a certain angle. These phenomena are described analytically: the period of energy transfer, the time variations of the amplitudes of both modes, and the change of the angle of the apparent plane of oscillations are determined. The analytic dependence of the semiaxes of the ellipse and the angle of precession on time agrees with high degree of accuracy with numerical calculations and is confirmed experimentally. In addition, the problem of forced oscillations of a spring pendulum in the presence of friction is considered, for which an asymptotic solution is constructed by the averaging method. An analogy is established between the nonlinear problems for free and forced oscillations of a pendulum and for deformation oscillations of a gas bubble. The transfer of the energy of radial oscillations to a resonance deformation mode leads to an anomalous increase in its amplitude and, as a consequence, to the break-up of a bubble.     

Stabilization of a quasi-conservative system subjected to high frequency excitation

The existence and stability conditions for the steady motions and equilibrium positions of non-linear quasi-conservative systems with fast external perturbations having quasi-periodic and random components are investigated. A change of variables is proposed which reduces Lagrange's equations of the system to standard form. It is shown the averaged system of the first approximation has a canonical form and the effect of fast perturbations (not necessarily potential) is equivalent to a change in the system's potential. This leads to stabilization of unstable equilibrium positions and to the appearance of additional stationary points different from the equilibrium positions of the unperturbed system. The approach used is illustrated by examples; the stability of a pendulum on an elastic suspension when there is suspension point, and the steady motion of a sphere subjected to a high-frequency load. The critical loading of a double pendulum loaded by a pulsating tracking force is estimated. A form of wide-band random perturbations capable of stabilizing the system is considered.     

The equations of the approximate theory of the motion of a rigid body with a vibrating suspension point

The motion of a rigid body in a uniform gravity field is investigated. One of the points of the body (the suspension point) performs specified small-amplitude high-frequency periodic or conditionally periodic oscillations (vibrations). The geometry of the body mass is arbitrary. An approximate system of differential equations is obtained, which does not contain the time explicitly and describes the rotational motion of the rigid body with respect to a system of coordinates moving translationally together with the suspension point. The error with which the solutions of the approximate system approximate to the solution of the exact system of equations of motion is indicated. The problem of the stability with respect to the equilibrium of the rigid body, when the suspension point performs vibrations along the vertical, is considered as an application.     

On the orbital stability of planar periodic motions of a rigid body in the Bobylev-Steklov case

We deal with the problem of orbital stability of pendulum-like periodic motions of a heavy rigid body with a fixed point. We suppose that a mass geometry corresponds to the Bobylev-Steklov case. The stability problem is solved in nonlinear setting. In the case of small amplitude oscillations and rotations with large angular velocities the small parameter can be introduced and the problem can be investigated analytically. In the case of unspecified oscillation amplitude or rotational angular velocity the problem is reduced to analysis of stability of a fixed point of the symplectic map generated by the equations of the perturbed motion. The coefficients of the symplectic map are determined numerically. Rigorous results on the orbital stability or instability of unperturbed motion are obtained by analyzing these coefficients.     

The non-linear oscillations of a pendulum of variable length on a vibrating base

A generalized scheme for averaging a system with several small independent parameters is described: equations of the first and second approximations are obtained, and an estimate is made of the accuracy of the approximation and the value of the asymptotically long time interval. The problem of the oscillations of a pendulum of variable length on a vibrating base for high vibration frequencies and small amplitudes of harmonic oscillations of the length of the pendulum and its suspension point is considered. Averaged equations of the first and second approximations are obtained, and the bifurcations of the steady motions in the equations of the first approximation, and also in the second approximation for 1:2 resonance, are obtained. One of the possible bifurcations of the phase portrait in the neighbourhood of 1:2 resonance is described based on a numerical investigation. It is shown that a change in the resonance detuning parameter from zero to a value of the first order of infinitesimals in the small parameter leads to stabilization of the upper equilibrium position through a splitting of the separatrices for the resonance case; the splitting of separatrices is accompanied by the occurrence of a stochastic web in the neighbourhood of this equilibrium, its localization, and subsequent contraction to an equilibrium point and the formation of a new oscillation zone.     

Parametric oscillations and the stability of a mechanical system with considerable dissipation

A detailed investigation is carried out into the problem of parametric oscillations when there is linear dissipation. Using constructive numerical-analytical methods, the boundaries of the domains of stability are constructed for a wide range of variation of the parameters, that is, the modulation factor and the friction coefficient. By solving non-self-adjoint eigenvalue and eigenfunction problems, the phase vectors of the three lower oscillation modes are determined and the principal features of the behaviour of the boundaries when the linear friction coefficient is varied are established. The eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the adjoint boundary value problem are found. A complete biorthogonal system is constructed and its functional properties are determined. Modified expressions are obtained for scalar products and the squares of the norms of the characteristic phase vectors.     

Stability and bifurcation for periodic perturbations of the equilibrium of an oscillator with infinite or infinitesimal oscillation frequency

We consider small perturbations periodic in time of an oscillator whose restoring force has a leading term with exponent 3 or 1/3. The first case corresponds to oscillations with infinitesimal frequency and the second case to oscillations with infinite frequency. The smallness of the perturbation is determined both by the smallness of the considered neighborhood of the equilibrium point and by a small nonnegative parameter ε. For ε=0, the stability of the equilibrium point is studied. For ε>0, we find conditions for an invariant two-dimensional torus to branch off with “soft” or “rigid” loss of stability with loss index 1/2. Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 65, No. 3, pp. 323–335, March, 1999.     

Self-excited oscillations of a two-mass oscillator with dry “stick-slip” friction

A system of two masses, moving along a single straight line, is considered. The first is connected by a spring to a fixed point, while the second is connected by a spring to the first and is in contact with a belt with dry friction moving with constant velocity. A piecewise-constant model of dry friction with different coefficients of friction, sliding and at rest, is used. The limit “stick-slip” type cycles are investigated analytically. It is shown numerically that in the case of equal masses there are forward and reverse limit cycles. The period of the oscillations of the forward and reverse cycles increases as the ratio of the stick and slip coefficients of friction increases, and decreases when the velocity of the belt increases. The reverse cycle exists for all values of the parameters of the problem, while the forward cycle exists up to a certain critical value of the ratio of the stick and slip coefficients of friction, and this critical value increases when the velocity of the belt increases.     

On the orbital stability of pendulum-like oscillations and rotations of a symmetric rigid body with a fixed point

We deal with the problem of orbital stability of planar periodic motions of a dynamically symmetric heavy rigid body with a fixed point. We suppose that the center of mass of the body lies in the equatorial plane of the ellipsoid of inertia. Unperturbed periodic motions are planar pendulum-like oscillations or rotations of the body around a principal axis keeping a fixed horizontal position. Local coordinates are introduced in a neighborhood of the unperturbed periodic motion and equations of the perturbed motion are obtained in Hamiltonian form. Regions of orbital instability are established by means of linear analysis. Outside the above-mentioned regions, nonlinear analysis is performed taking into account terms up to degree 4 in the expansion of the Hamiltonian in a neighborhood of unperturbed motion. The nonlinear problem of orbital stability is reduced to analysis of stability of a fixed point of the symplectic map generated by the equations of the perturbed motion. The coefficients of the symplectic map are determined numerically. Rigorous results on the orbital stability or instability of unperturbed motion are obtained by analyzing these coefficients. The orbital stability is investigated analytically in two limiting cases: small amplitude oscillations and rotations with large angular velocities when a small parameter can be introduced.     

On final motions of a Chaplygin ball on a rough plane

A heavy balanced nonhomogeneous ball moving on a rough horizontal plane is considered. The classical model of a “marble” body means a single point of contact, where sliding is impossible. We suggest that the contact forces be described by Coulomb’s law and show that in the final motion there is no sliding. Another, relatively new, contact model is the “rubber” ball: there is no sliding and no spinning. We treat this situation by applying a local Coulomb law within a small contact area. It is proved that the final motion of a ball with such friction is the motion of the “rubber” ball.     

An inverted pendulum on a fixed and a moving base

The plane motions of a controlled single-link pendulum with a fixed suspension point and a pendulum with its suspension point located at the centre of a wheel which rolls without sliding along a flat horizontal surface are considered. The control torque, applied to the pendulum at the suspension point, is bounded in absolute magnitude. A controllability domain is constructed in the linear approximation for the one and the other pendulum, from all points of which the pendulum can be brought into the upper unstable equilibrium position without oscillations about the lower equilibrium. It is shown that the domain of controllability is greater for a pendulum mounted on a wheel, as a result it is more easily stabilizable. Control laws are constructed, under which the domain of attraction is identical to the controllability domain and is thereby the largest possible domain.     

An Asymptotic Analysis of a 2-D Model of Dynamically Active Compartments Coupled by Bulk Diffusion

A class of coupled cell–bulk ODE–PDE models is formulated and analyzed in a two-dimensional domain, which is relevant to studying quorum-sensing behavior on thin substrates. In this model, spatially segregated dynamically active signaling cells of a common small radius \(\epsilon \ll 1\) are coupled through a passive bulk diffusion field. For this coupled system, the method of matched asymptotic expansions is used to construct steady-state solutions and to formulate a spectral problem that characterizes the linear stability properties of the steady-state solutions, with the aim of predicting whether temporal oscillations can be triggered by the cell–bulk coupling. Phase diagrams in parameter space where such collective oscillations can occur, as obtained from our linear stability analysis, are illustrated for two specific choices of the intracellular kinetics. In the limit of very large bulk diffusion, it is shown that solutions to the ODE–PDE cell–bulk system can be approximated by a finite-dimensional dynamical system. This limiting system is studied both analytically, using a linear stability analysis and, globally, using numerical bifurcation software. For one illustrative example of the theory, it is shown that when the number of cells exceeds some critical number, i.e., when a quorum is attained, the passive bulk diffusion field can trigger oscillations through a Hopf bifurcation that would otherwise not occur without the coupling. Moreover, for two specific models for the intracellular dynamics, we show that there are rather wide regions in parameter space where these triggered oscillations are synchronous in nature. Unless the bulk diffusivity is asymptotically large, it is shown that a diffusion-sensing behavior is possible whereby more clustered spatial configurations of cells inside the domain lead to larger regions in parameter space where synchronous collective oscillations between the small cells can occur. Finally, the linear stability analysis for these cell–bulk models is shown to be qualitatively rather similar to the linear stability analysis of localized spot patterns for activator–inhibitor reaction–diffusion systems in the limit of long-range inhibition and short-range activation.     

On the Settling Speed of Free and Fixed Suspensions

Dilute suspensions of small spheres in a viscous fluid are examined for the three cases of: I, a regular periodic array; II, a random array of freely moving particles; and III a random array in which the particles are held rigidly. It is known that the difference between average force and average velocity for a particle is a different function of concentration for the three cases. A unified analytical treatment is given for the point particle approximation, which explains the different qualitative dependence on concentration. It is shown that the differences between I and II are kinematical in nature, depending entirely on the difference between the geometries of regular and random arrays. The different result for case III is due to the shielding effect of a dilute suspension when the velocities, but not the forces, of the particles are fixed.     

The stability of an inverted pendulum with a vibrating suspension point

The problem of stabilizing the upper vertical (inverted) position of a pendulum using vibration of the suspension point is considered. The periodic function describing the vibrations of the suspension point is assumed to be arbitrary but possessing small amplitudes, and slight viscous damping is taken into account. A formula is obtained for the limit of the region of stability of the solutions of Hill's equation with damping in the neighbourhood of the zeroth natural frequency. The analytical and numerical results are compared and show good agreement. An asymptotic formula is derived for the critical stabilization frequency of the upper vertical position of the pendulum. It is shown that the effect of viscous damping on the critical frequency is of the third-order of smallness and, in all the examples considered, when viscous damping is taken into account the critical frequency increases.