Global dynamics of a pipe conveying pulsating fluid in primary parametrical resonance: Analytical and numerical results from the nonlinear wave equation

The chaotic dynamics of nonlinear waves in the harmonic-forced fluid-conveying pipe in primary parametrical resonance, is explored analytically and numerically. The multiple scale method is applied to obtain an equivalent nonlinear wave equation from the complicated nonlinear governing equation describing the fluid conveyed in a pipe. With the Melnikov method, the persistence of a heteroclinic structure is shown to be satisfied and its condition is given in functional form. Similarly, for the heteroclinic orbit, using geometric analysis, a condition function of the stable manifold is derived for the orbit to return to the stable manifold from the saddle point. The persistent homoclinic structures and threshold of chaos in the Smale-horseshoe sense are obtained for the fluid-conveying pipe under both conditions, indicating how the external excitation amplitude can change substantially the global dynamics of the fluid conveyed in the pipe. A numerical approach was used to test the prediction from theory. The impact of the external excitation amplitude on the nonlinear wave in the fluid-conveying pipe was also studied from numerical simulations. Both theoretical predications and numerical simulations attest to the complex chaotic motion of fluid-conveying pipes.