On the stability of nonlinear vibrations of coupled pendulums

The motion of two identical pendulums connected by a linear elastic spring is studied. The pendulums move in a fixed vertical plane in a homogeneous gravity field. The nonlinear problem of orbital stability of such a periodic motion of the pendulums is considered under the assumption that they vibrate in the same direction with the same amplitude. (This is one of the two possible types of nonlinear normal vibrations.) An analytic investigation is performed in the cases of small vibration amplitude or small rigidity of the spring. In a special case where the spring rigidity and the vibration amplitude are arbitrary, the study is carried out numerically. Arbitrary linear and nonlinear vibrations in the case of small rigidity (the case of sympathetic pendulums) were studied earlier 1, 2].