Spectrographic analysis for the modal testing of nonlinear aeroelastic systems

The spectrograph is a signal-processing tool often used for the frequency domain analysis of time-varying signals. When the signal to be analyzed is a function of time, the spectrograph represents the frequency content of the signal as a sequence of power spectra that change with time. In this paper, the usefulness of the technique is demonstrated in its application to the analysis of the time history response of a nonlinear aeroelastic system. The aeroelastic system is modelled analytically as a two-dimensional, rigid airfoil section free to move in both the bending and pitching directions and possessing a rigid flap. The airfoil is mounted by torsional and translational springs attached at the elastic axis, and the flap is used to provide the forcing input to the system. The nonlinear system is obtained by introducing a freeplay type of nonlinearity in the pitch degree-of-freedom restoring moment. The airfoil is immersed in an aerodynamic flow environment, modelled using incompressible thin airfoil theory for unsteady oscillatory motion. The equations of motion are solved using a fourth-order Runge–Kutta numerical integration technique to provide time-history solutions of the response of the airfoil in the pitch and plunge directions. Time-histories are obtained for the nonlinear responses of the linear and nonlinear aeroelastic systems to a sine-sweep input. The time-histories are analyzed using the spectrographic technique, and the frequency content of the response is plotted directly as a function of the input frequency. Results show that the combination of the sine-sweep input with the spectrographic analysis permits a unique insight into the behavior of the nonlinear system with a minimum of testing. It is shown that the frequency of the nonlinear system response is a function of the input frequency and one other characteristic frequency that can be associated with the limit cycle oscillations of the same nonlinear system subject to a transient input.     

Analysis of time-periodic nonlinear dynamical systems undergoing bifurcations

In this study a new procedure for analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems with periodically varying parameters under critical conditions is presented through an application of the Liapunov-Floquet (L-F) transformation. The L-F transformation is obtained by computing the state transition matrix associated with the linear part of the problem. The elements of the state transition matrix are expressed in terms of Chebyshev polynomials in timet which is suitable for algebraic manipulations. Application of Floquet theory and the eigen-analysis of the state transition matrix at the end of one principal period provides the L-F transformation matrix in terms of the Chebyshev polynomials. Since this is a periodic matrix, the L-F transformation matrix has a Fourier representation. It is well known that such a transformation converts a linear periodic system into a linear time-invariant one. When applied to quasi-linear equations with periodic coefficients, a dynamically similar system is obtained whose linear part is time-invariant and the nonlinear part consists of coefficients which are periodic. Due to this property of the L-F transformation, a periodic orbit in original coordinates will have a fixed point representation in the transformed coordinates. In this study, the bifurcation analysis of the transformed equations, obtained after the application of the L-F transformation, is conducted by employingtime-dependent center manifold reduction andtime-dependent normal form theory. The above procedures are analogous to existing methods that are employed in the study of bifurcations of autonomous systems. For the two physical examples considered, the three generic codimension one bifurcations namely, Hopf, flip and fold bifurcations are analyzed. In the first example, the primary bifurcations of a parametrically excited single degree of freedom pendulum is studied. As a second example, a double inverted pendulum subjected to a periodic loading which undergoes Hopf or flip bifurcation is analyzed. The methodology is semi-analytic in nature and provides quantitative measure of stability when compared to point mappings method. Furthermore, the technique is applicable also to those systems where the periodic term of the linear part does not contain a small parameter which is certainly not the case with perturbation or averaging methods. The conclusions of the study are substantiated by numerical simulations. It is believed that analysis of this nature has been reported for the first time for this class of systems.     

Time and frequency domain nonlinear system characterization for mechanical fault identification

Mechanical systems are often nonlinear with nonlinear components and nonlinear connections, and mechanical damage frequently causes changes in the nonlinear characteristics of mechanical systems, e.g. loosening of bolts increases Coulomb friction nonlinearity. Consequently, methods which characterize the nonlinear behavior of mechanical systems are well-suited to detect such damage. This paper presents passive time and frequency domain methods that exploit the changes in the nonlinear behavior of a mechanical system to identify damage. In the time domain, fundamental mechanics models are used to generate restoring forces, which characterize the nonlinear nature of internal forces in system components under loading. The onset of nonlinear damage results in changes to the restoring forces, which can be used as indicators of damage. Analogously, in the frequency domain, transmissibility (output-only) versions of auto-regressive exogenous input (ARX) models are used to locate and characterize the degree to which faults change the nonlinear correlations present in the response data. First, it is shown that damage causes changes in the restoring force characteristics, which can be used to detect damage. Second, it is shown that damage also alters the nonlinear correlations in the data that can be used to locate and track the progress of damage. Both restoring forces and auto-regressive transmissibility methods utilize operational response data for damage identification. Mechanical faults in ground vehicle suspension systems, e.g. loosening of bolts, are identified using experimental data.     

Interaction of free and forced nonlinear normal modes in two-DOF dissipative systems under resonance conditions

The resonance dynamics of a dissipative spring-mass and of a dissipative spring-pendulum system is studied. Internal resonance case is considered for the first system; both external resonances and simultaneous external and internal resonance are studied for the second one. Analysis of the systems resonance behavior is made on the base of the concept of nonlinear normal vibration modes (NNMs) by Kauderer and Rosenberg, which is generalized for dissipative systems. The multiple time scales method under resonance conditions is applied. The resulting equations are reduced to a system with respect to the system energy, arctangent of the amplitudes ratio and the difference of phases of required solution in the resonance vicinity. Equilibrium positions of the reduced system correspond to nonlinear normal modes; in energy dissipation case they are quasi-equilibriums. Analysis of the equilibrium states of the reduced system permits to investigate stability of nonlinear normal modes in the resonance vicinity and to describe transfer from unstable vibration mode to stable one. New vibration regimes, which are called transient nonlinear normal modes (TNNMs) are obtained. These regimes take place only for some particular levels of the system energy. In the vicinity of values of time, corresponding to these energy levels, the TTNM attract other system motions. Then, when the energy decreases, the transient modes vanish, and the system motions tend to another nonlinear normal mode, which is stable in the resonance vicinity. The reliability of the obtained analytical results is confirmed by numerical and numerical-analytical simulations.     

An exact nonlinear hybrid-coordinate formulation for flexible multibody systems

The previous low-order approximate nonlinear formulations succeeded in capturing the stiffening terms, but failed in simulation of mechanical systems with large deformation due to the neglect of the high-order deformation terms. In this paper, a new hybrid-coordinate formulation is proposed, which is suitable for flexible multibody systems with large deformation. On the basis of exact strain–displacement relation, equations of motion for flexible multibody system are derived by using virtual work principle. A matrix separation method is put forward to improve the efficiency of the calculation. Agreement of the present results with those obtained by absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) verifies the correctness of the proposed formulation. Furthermore, the present results are compared with those obtained by use of the linear model and the low-order approximate nonlinear model to show the suitability of the proposed models. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10472066, 50475021).     

The response of nonlinear systems to modulated high-frequency input

We study the response of a single-degree-of-freedom system with cubic nonlinearities to an amplitude-modulated excitation whose carrier frequency is much higher than the natural frequency of the system. The only restriction on the amplitude modulation is that it contain frequencies much lower than the carrier frequency of the excitation. We apply the theory to different types of amplitude modulation and find that resonant excitation of the system may occur under some conditions.     

On the use of neural networks for identification of linear and nonlinear systems

A procedure based on neural networks for the classification of linear and nonlinear systems is presented, using excitation and response data under swept sine excitation. Special attention is paid to the classification and identification of linear and bilinear systems, the latter being considered since they exhibit typical characteristics of cracked systems. The computer simulations show that: (1) using the procedure presented in this paper the trained classification network can reliably classify a linear system and different nonlinear systems; (2) the output of the trained identification neural network for a linear system and a bilinear system can be used as a quantitative indicator of characteristics of bilinear systems having different stiffness ratios (k _(x>0)/k _(x<0)) with respect to the bilinear system used in the training stage; (3) for two-degree-of-freedom systems, the trained network can not only determine the existence of a bilinear stiffness and the magnitude of its stiffness ratio, but also specify which stiffness is bilinear, i.e. indicate its position. These results provide a possibility of using the trained neural networks to detect and locate structural cracks which have the characteristics of bilinear systems.Visiting scholar, from People's Republic of China.     

The stability of limit cycles in nonlinear systems

In this paper, a necessary condition is first presented for the existence of limit cycles in nonlinear systems, then four theorems are presented for the stability, instability, and semistabilities of limit cycles in second order nonlinear systems. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given in terms of the signs of first and second derivatives of a continuously differentiable positive function at the vicinity of the limit cycle. Two examples considering nonlinear systems with familiar limit cycles are presented to illustrate the theorems.     

Analysis of periodic-quasiperiodic nonlinear systems via Lyapunov-Floquet transformation and normal forms

In this paper a general technique for the analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems with periodic-quasiperiodic coefficients is developed. For such systems the coefficients of the linear terms are periodic with frequency ω while the coefficients of the nonlinear terms contain frequencies that are incommensurate with ω. No restrictions are placed on the size of the periodic terms appearing in the linear part of system equation. Application of Lyapunov-Floquet transformation produces a dynamically equivalent system in which the linear part is time-invariant and the time varying coefficients of the nonlinear terms are quasiperiodic. Then a series of quasiperiodic near-identity transformations are applied to reduce the system equation to a normal form. In the process a quasiperiodic homological equation and the corresponding ‘solvability condition’ are obtained. Various resonance conditions are discussed and examples are included to show practical significance of the method. Results obtained from the quasiperiodic time-dependent normal form theory are compared with the numerical solutions. A close agreement is found.     

Globally convergent homotopy algorithms for nonlinear systems of equations

Probability-one homotopy methods are a class of algorithms for solving nonlinear systems of equations that are accurate, robust, and converge from an arbitrary starting point almost surely. These new globally convergent homotopy techniques have been successfully applied to solve Brouwer fixed point problems, polynomial systems of equations, constrained and unconstrained optimization problems, discretizations of nonlinear two-point boundary value problems based on shooting, finite differences, collocation, and finite elements, and finite difference, collocation, and Galerkin approximations to nonlinear partial differential equations. This paper introduces, in a tutorial fashion, the theory of globally convergent homotopy algorithms, deseribes some computer algorithms and mathematical software, and presents several nontrivial engineering applications.This work was supported in part by DOE Grant DE-FG05-88ER25068, NASA Grant NAG-1-1079, and AFOSR Grant 89-0497.     

Connection between Volterra series and perturbation method in nonlinear systems analyses

This paper is concerned with the connection between the Volterra series and the regular perturbation method in nonlinear systems analyses. It is revealed for the first time that, for a forced polynomial nonlinear system, if its derived linear system is a damped dissipative system, the steady response obtained through the regular perturbation method is exactly identical to the response given by the Volterra series. On the other hand, if the derived linear system is an undamped conservative system, then the Volterra series is incapable of modeling the forced polynomial nonlinear system. Numerical examples are further presented to illustrate these points. The results provide a new criterion for quickly judging whether the Volterra series is applicable for modeling a given polynomial nonlinear system.     

Numerical calculation of nonlinear normal modes in structural systems

This paper presents two methods for numerical calculation of nonlinear normal modes (NNMs) in multi-degree-of-freedom, conservative, nonlinear structural dynamics models. The approaches used are briefly described as follows. Method 1: Starting with small amplitude initial conditions determined by a selected mode of the associated linear system, a small amount of negative damping is added in order to “artificially destabilize” the system; numerical integration of the system equations of motion then produces a simulated response in which orbits spiral outward essentially in the nonlinear modal manifold of interest, approximately generating this manifold for moderate to strong nonlinearity. Method 2: Starting with moderate to large amplitude initial conditions proportional to a selected linear mode shape, perform numerical integration with the coefficient ε of the nonlinearity contrived to vary slowly from an initial value of zero; this simulation methodology gradually transforms the initially flat eigenspace for ε = 0 into the manifold existing quasi-statically for instantaneous values of ε. The two methods are efficient and reasonably accurate and are intended for use in finding NNMs, as well as interesting behavior associated with them, for moderately and strongly nonlinear systems with relatively many degrees of freedom (DOFs).     

Forecasting supercritical and subcritical Hopf bifurcations in aeroelastic systems

A novel method of forecasting bifurcations based on only the observation of the pre-bifurcation regime is proposed. The method is an extension of previous approaches with a focus on oscillatory systems. The method also enables the use of much less measurement data. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate that this new approach predicts the post-bifurcation regime accurately and to explore the robustness of this method to process noise.     

Extensions of hyperbolic systems of balance laws

An algorithm is presented for the extension of a hyperbolic system of balance laws to a system of higher dimension, in such a manner that weak solutions of the original system form a subset of the weak solutions of the extended system. Hyperbolicity and the symmetry group of the original system survive the extension, and some information on the characteristic speeds of the extended system is obtained. Applying the method to isentropic fluid flow, a new form of model for two-fluid flow is obtained. PACS 52.30.Ex, 52.35.Tc AMS Subject clssification Primary 35L65, Secondary 76T99     

A new numerical technique for the analysis of parametrically excited nonlinear systems

A new computational scheme using Chebyshev polynomials is proposed for the numerical solution of parametrically excited nonlinear systems. The state vector and the periodic coefficients are expanded in Chebyshev polynomials and an integral equation suitable for a Picard-type iteration is formulated. A Chebyshev collocation is applied to the integral with the nonlinearities reducing the problem to the solution of a set of linear algebraic equations in each iteration. The method is equally applicable for nonlinear systems which are represented in state-space form or by a set of second-order differential equations. The proposed technique is found to duplicate the periodic, multi-periodic and chaotic solutions of a parametrically excited system obtained previously using the conventional numerical integration schemes with comparable CPU times. The technique does not require the inversion of the mass matrix in the case of multi degree-of-freedom systems. The present method is also shown to offer significant computational conveniences over the conventional numerical integration routines when used in a scheme for the direct determination of periodic solutions. Of course, the technique is also applicable to non-parametrically excited nonlinear systems as well.     

Comparative study of chained systems theory and fuzzy logic as a solution for the nonlinear lateral control of a road vehicle

This paper presents a comparative study of different lateral controllers applied to the autonomous steering of automobiles. The nonlinear nature of vehicle dynamics makes it a challenging problem in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) field, as long as a stable, accurate controller is compulsorily needed in order to ensure safety during navigation. The problem has been tackled under two different approaches. The first one is based on chained systems theory, while the second controller relies on fuzzy logic. A comparative analysis has been carried out based on the results achieved in practical trials. Real tests were conducted using a DGPS-driven electric Citroen Berlingo in a private test circuit located at the Industrial Automation Institute of the CSIC (Arganda del Rey, Madrid). The final results and conclusions are presented.     

A nonlinear model of vortex-induced forces on an oscillating cylinder in a fluid flow

A nonlinear model relating the imposed motion of a circular cylinder, submerged in a fluid flow, to the transverse force coefficient is presented. The nonlinear fluid system, featuring vortex shedding patterns, limit cycle oscillations and synchronisation, is studied both for swept sine and multisine excitation. A nonparametric nonlinear distortion analysis (FAST) is used to distinguish odd from even nonlinear behaviour. The information which is obtained from the nonlinear analysis is explicitly used in constructing a nonlinear model of the polynomial nonlinear state-space (PNLSS) type. The latter results in a reduction of the number of parameters and an increased accuracy compared to the generic modelling approach where typically no such information of the nonlinearity is used. The obtained model is able to accurately simulate time series of the transverse force coefficient over a wide range of the frequency–amplitude plane of imposed cylinder motion.     

Local bifurcation theory of nonlinear systems with parametric excitation

This paper summarizes the authors' research on local bifurcation theory of nonlinear systems with parametric excitation since 1986. The paper is divided into three parts. The first one is the local bifurcation problem of nonlinear systems with parametric excitation in cases of fundamental harmonic, subharmonic and superharmonic resonance. The second one is the experiment investigation of local bifurcation solutions in nonlinear systems with parametric excitation. The third one is the universal unfolding study of periodic bifurcation solutions in the nonlinear Hill system, where the influence of every physical parameter on the periodic bifurcation solution is discussed in detail and all the results may be applied to engineering.     

Primary pulse transmission in a strongly nonlinear periodic system

The aim of this work is to study the transmission of stress waves in an impulsively forced semi-infinite repetitive system of linear layers which are coupled by means of strongly nonlinear coupling elements. Only primary pulse transmission and reflection at each nonlinear element is considered. This permits the reduction of the problem to an infinite set of first-order strongly nonlinear ordinary differential equations. A subset of these equations is solved both analytically and numerically. For a system possessing clearance nonlinearities it is found that the primary transmitted pulse propagates to only a finite number of layers, and that further transmission of energy to additional layers can occur only through time-delayed secondary pulses or does not occur at all. Hence, clearance nonlinearities in a periodic layered system can lead to energy entrapment in the leading layers. An alternative continuum approximation methodology is also outlined which reduces the problem of primary pulse transmission to the solution of a single strongly nonlinear partial differential equation. The use of the continuum approximation for studying maximum primary pulse penetration in the system with clearance nonlinearities is discussed.