Non-linear output frequency response functions of MDOF systems with multiple non-linear components

In engineering practice, most mechanical and structural systems are modelled as multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systems such as, e.g., the periodic structures. When some components within the systems have non-linear characteristics, the whole system will behave non-linearly. The concept of non-linear output frequency response functions (NOFRFs) was proposed by the authors recently and provides a simple way to investigate non-linear systems in the frequency domain. The present study is concerned with investigating the inherent relationships between the NOFRFs for any two masses of non-linear MDOF systems with multiple non-linear components. The results reveal very important properties of the non-linear systems. These properties clearly indicate how the system linear characteristic parameters govern the propagation of the non-linear effect induced by non-linear components in the system. One potential application of the results is to detect and locate faults in engineering structures which make the structures behave non-linearly.     

Low-frequency band gaps in chains with attached non-linear oscillators

The aim of this article is to investigate the wave propagation in one-dimensional chains with attached non-linear local oscillators by using analytical and numerical models. The focus is on the influence of non-linearities on the filtering properties of the chain in the low frequency range. Periodic systems with alternating properties exhibit interesting dynamic characteristics that enable them to act as filters. Waves can propagate along them within specific bands of frequencies called pass bands, and attenuate within bands of frequencies called stop bands or band gaps. Stop bands in structures with periodic or random inclusions are located mainly in the high frequency range, as the wavelength has to be comparable with the distance between the alternating parts. Band gaps may also exist in structures with locally attached oscillators. In the linear case the gap is located around the resonant frequency of the oscillators, and thus a stop band can be created in the lower frequency range. In the case with non-linear oscillators the results show that the position of the band gap can be shifted, and the shift depends on the amplitude and the degree of non-linear behaviour.     

Effects of a crack on the stability of a non-linear rotor system

The stability of a rotor system presenting a transverse breathing crack is studied by considering the effects of crack depth, crack location and the shaft's rotational speed. The harmonic balance method, in combination with a path-following continuation procedure, is used to calculate the periodic response of a non-linear model of a cracked rotor system. The stability of the rotor's periodic movements is studied in the frequency domain by introducing the effects of a perturbation on the periodic solution for the cracked rotor system.It is shown that the areas of instability increase considerably when the crack deepens, and that the crack's position and depth are the main factors affecting not only the non-linear behaviour of the rotor system but also the different zones of dynamic instability in the periodic solution for the cracked rotor. The effects of some other system parameters (including the disk position and the stiffness of the supports) on the dynamic stability of the non-linear periodic response of the cracked rotor system are also investigated.     

Analytical approximation to large-amplitude oscillation of a non-linear conservative system

This paper deals with non-linear oscillation of a conservative system having inertia and static non-linearities. By combining the linearization of the governing equation with the method of harmonic balance, we establish analytical approximate solutions for the non-linear oscillations of the system. Unlike the classical harmonic balance method, linearization is performed prior to proceeding with harmonic balancing, thus resulting in a set of linear algebraic equations instead of one of non-linear algebraic equations. Hence, we are able to establish analytical approximate formulas for the exact frequency and periodic solution. These analytical approximate formulas show excellent agreement with the exact solutions, and are valid for small as well as large amplitudes of oscillation.     

Non-linear vibrations of sandwich viscoelastic shells

This paper deals with the non-linear vibration of sandwich viscoelastic shell structures. Coupling a harmonic balance method with the Galerkin's procedure, one obtains an amplitude equation depending on two complex coefficients. The latter are determined by solving a classical eigenvalue problem and two linear ones. This permits to get the non-linear frequency and the non-linear loss factor as functions of the displacement amplitude. To validate our approach, these relationships are illustrated in the case of a circular sandwich ring.     

Elliptic averaging methods using the sum of Jacobian elliptic delta and zeta functions as the generating solution

The present paper describes an improved version of the elliptic averaging method that provides a highly accurate periodic solution of a non-linear system based on the single-degree-of-freedom Duffing oscillator with a snap-through spring. In the proposed method, the sum of the Jacobian elliptic delta and zeta functions is used as the generating solution of the averaging method. The proposed method can be used to obtain the non-odd-order solution, which includes both even- and odd-order harmonic components. The stability analysis for the approximate solution obtained by the present method is also discussed. The stability of the solution is determined from the characteristic multiplier based on Floquet’s theorem. The proposed method is applied to a fundamental oscillator in a non-linear system. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method is very effective for analyzing the periodic solution of half-swing mode for systems based on Duffing oscillators with a snap-through spring.     

Modified Lindstedt-Poincare methods for some strongly non-linear oscillations: Part I: expansion of a constant

In this paper, a modified Lindstedt-Poincare method is proposed. In this technique, a constant, rather than the non-linear frequency, is expanded in powers of the expanding parameter to avoid the occurrence of secular terms in the perturbation series solution. Some examples are given here to illustrate its effectiveness and convenience. The results show that the obtained approximate solutions are uniformly valid on the whole solution domain, and they are suitable not only for weakly non-linear systems, but also for strongly non-linear systems.     

Non-linear longitudinal vibrations of non-slender piezoceramic rods

Characteristic non-linear effects can be observed, when piezoceramics are excited using weak electric fields. In experiments with longitudinal vibrations of piezoceramic rods, the behavior of a softening Duffing-oscillator including jump phenomena and multiple stable amplitude responses at the same excitation frequency and voltage is observed. Another phenomenon is the decrease of normalized amplitude responses with increasing excitation voltages. For such small stresses and weak electric fields as applied in the experiments, piezoceramics are usually described by linear constitutive equations around an operating point in the butterfly hysteresis curve. The non-linear effects under consideration were, e.g. observed and described by Beige and Schmidt [1,2], who investigated longitudinal plate vibrations using the piezoelectric 31-effect. They modeled these non-linearities using higher order quadratic and cubic elastic and electric terms. Typical non-linear effects, e.g. dependence of the resonance frequency on the amplitude, superharmonics in spectra and a non-linear relation between excitation voltage and vibration amplitude were also observed e.g. by von Wagner et al. [3] in piezo-beam systems. In the present paper, the work is extended to longitudinal vibrations of non-slender piezoceramic rods using the piezoelectric 33-effect. The non-linearities are modeled using an extended electric enthalpy density including non-linear quadratic and cubic elastic terms, coupling terms and electric terms. The equations of motion for the system under consideration are derived via the Ritz method using Hamilton's principle. An extended kinetic energy taking into consideration the transverse velocity is used to model the non-slender rods. The equations of motion are solved using perturbation techniques. In a second step, additional dissipative linear and non-linear terms are used in the model. The non-linear effects described in this paper may have strong influence on the relation between excitation voltage and response amplitude whenever piezoceramic actuators and structures are excited at resonance.     

Dynamics of a linear oscillator connected to a small strongly non-linear hysteretic absorber

The present investigation deals with the dynamics of a two-degrees-of-freedom system which consists of a main linear oscillator and a strongly non-linear absorber with small mass. The non-linear oscillator has a softening hysteretic characteristic represented by a Bouc-Wen model. The periodic solutions of this system are studied and their calculation is performed through an averaging procedure. The study of non-linear modes and their stability shows, under specific conditions, the existence of localization which is responsible for a passive irreversible energy transfer from the linear oscillator to the non-linear one. The dissipative effect of the non-linearity appears to play an important role in the energy transfer phenomenon and some design criteria can be drawn regarding this parameter among others to optimize this energy transfer. The free transient response is investigated and it is shown that the energy transfer appears when the energy input is sufficient in accordance with the predictions from the non-linear modes. Finally, the steady-state forced response of the system is investigated. When the input of energy is sufficient, the resonant response (close to non-linear modes) experiences localization of the vibrations in the non-linear absorber and jump phenomena.     

Non-linear analysis of structures using two-point method

Non-linear algebraic equations must be solved by an iterative method, the non-linear equations being linearized by evaluating the non-linear terms with the known solution from the preceding iteration. The Newton-Raphson method, which is based on the Taylor series expansion and uses the tangent stiffness matrix, has been extensively used to solve non-linear problems. In this paper, a new Newton-Raphson algorithm is developed for analyses involving non-linear behavior. Our method, here named as a two-point method, is constructed as a predictor-corrector one, most frequently taking Newton's method in the first iteration. It should be noted that our concern in this research ignores the problem of passing limit points. The presented method incorporates the known information at each stage of the loading process to determine the subsequent unknown variables. Compared with the classic Newton-Raphson algorithm, it offers a strategy that can be deployed to reduce both the number of the iterations and the computing time involved in non-linear analysis of structures.     

Non-linear oscillations of a rotor-magnetic bearing system under superharmonic resonance conditions

The effect of non-linear magnetic forces on the non-linear response of the shaft is examined for the case of superharmonic resonance in this paper. It is shown that the steady-state superharmonic periodic solutions lose their stability by either saddle-node or Hopf bifurcations. The system exhibits many typical characteristics of the behavior of non-linear dynamical systems such as multiple coexisting solutions, jump phenomenon, and sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The effects of the feedback gains and imbalance eccentricity on the non-linear response of the system are studied. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to verify the analytical predictions.     

Application of vector-valued rational approximations to a class of non-linear oscillations

By combining a perturbation technique with a rational approximation of vector-valued function, we propose a new approach to non-linear oscillations of conservative single-degree-of-freedom systems with odd non-linearity. The equation of motion does not require to contain a small parameter. First, the Lindstedt-Poincare perturbation method is used to obtain an asymptotic analytical solution. Then the range of validity of the analytical representation is extended by using the vector-valued rational approximation of functions. For constructing the rational approximations, all that is needed is the coefficients of the perturbation expansion being considered. General approximate formulas for period and the corresponding periodic solution of a non-linear system are established. Two examples are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

具有系统参数的非线性动力系统周期解方法

给出两种形式的微分方程周期求解方法,这两种方法对称处理奇异的非线性特征值问题有独特的能力,为具有系统参数的非线性动力系统在整个系统参数范围内的动态特性分析提供了有效的方法。     

Non-linear dynamics of a system of coupled oscillators with essential stiffness non-linearities

We study the resonant dynamics of a two-degree-of-freedom system composed of a linear oscillator weakly coupled to a strongly non-linear one, with an essential (non-linearizable) cubic stiffness non-linearity. For the undamped system this leads to a series of internal resonances, depending on the level of (conserved) total energy of oscillation. We study in detail the 1:1 internal resonance, and show that the undamped system possesses stable and unstable synchronous periodic motions (non-linear normal modes—NNMs), as well as, asynchronous periodic motions (elliptic orbits—EOs). Furthermore, we show that when damping is introduced certain NNMs produce resonance capture phenomena, where a trajectory of the damped dynamics gets ‘captured’ in the neighborhood of a damped NNM before ‘escaping’ and becoming an oscillation with exponentially decaying amplitude. In turn, these resonance captures may lead to passive non-linear energy pumping phenomena from the linear to the non-linear oscillator. Thus, sustained resonance capture appears to provide a dynamical mechanism for passively transferring energy from one part of the system to another, in a one-way, irreversible fashion. Numerical integrations confirm the analytical predictions.     

Understanding the effect of boundary conditions on damage identification process when using non-linear elastic wave spectroscopy methods

This paper presents an experimental campaign aimed at understanding the limitations and capabilities of non-linear elastic wave spectroscopy (NEWS) non-destructive technique (NDT) methods in the presence of variable boundary conditions. In particular, the objective was to understand if the contact between the structures under investigation and the clamps used to hold the structures could generate non-classical non-linear effects that could affect the damage detection process by producing false-positive indications of defects presence.Two different techniques were analysed with varying degree clamping torque. The first approach evaluates the resonance frequency shift as a function of the external load amplitude, and it is called non-linear resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (NRUS). The second method used, called non-linear wave modulation spectroscopy (NWMS), monitors the generation of sidebands and harmonics when the structure is excited by a double tone external load.The results showed that the non-classical hysteretical non-linear effects were dependent on the boundary conditions, highlighted by the presence of resonance shift and harmonics and sidebands in an undamaged sample. This research shows that more work is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the methods and the ease of implementation in a structural health monitoring system and further research studies and methodology development are needed to discern non-classical non-linear effects generated by contacts between mating parts (clamps and sample) from that generated due to the presence of damage.     

强非线性动力系统周期解分析

给出一类强非线性动力系统周期解存在性，唯一性和稳定性的简易差别法以及周期解的摄动法。本差别法把问题归结为干扰力在相应的未扰系统振动周期上的功函数及其导数的讨论，其限制条件比现有结果弱。本摄动法可以认为是经典Ｌｉｎｄｓｔｅｄｔ－Ｐｏｉｎｃａｒｅ（Ｌ－Ｐ）法在强非线性振动系统的推广。它与Ｌ－Ｐ法的主要区别在于假设系统的振动频率为相角的非线性函数。     

Non-linear vibrations and frequency response analysis of piezoelectrically driven microcantilevers

Microcantilevers have recently received widespread attentions due to their extreme applicability and versatility in both biological and non-biological applications. Along this line, this paper undertakes the non-linear vibrations of a piezoelectrically driven microcantilever beam as a common configuration in many scanning probe microscopy and nanomechanical cantilever biosensor systems. A part of the microcantilever beam surface is covered by a piezoelectric layer (typically ZnO), which acts both as an actuator and sensor. The bending vibrations of the microcantilever beam are studied considering the inextensibility condition and the coupling between electrical and mechanical properties in the piezoelectric materials. The non-linear terms appear in the form of quadratic expression due to presence of piezoelectric layer, and cubic form due to geometrical non-linearities. The Galerkin approximation is then utilized to discretize the equations of motion. In addition, the method of multiple scales is applied to arrive at the closed form solution for the fundamental natural frequency of the system. An experimental setup consisting of a commercial piezoelectric microcantilever attached on the stand of a state-of-the-art microsystem analyzer for non-contact vibration measurement is utilized to verify the theoretical developments. It is found that the experimental results and theoretical findings are in good agreement, which demonstrates that the non-linear modeling framework could provide a better dynamic representation of the microcantilever than the previous linear models. Due to microscale nature of the system, excitation amplitude plays an important role since even a small change in the amplitude of excitation can lead to significant vibrations and frequency shift.     

Energy pumping for mechanical systems involving non-smooth Saint-Venant terms

This paper deals with energy transfer from initial one degree of freedom system including non-smooth terms of friction (Saint-Venant) type to an auxiliary mass via an adapted non-linear coupling. We describe design of auxiliary degree of freedom and non-linear smooth coupling to the initial one degree of freedom system. First the auxiliary system is designed as if the initial one degree of freedom system was simply elastic. Then we study numerically the transfer for the non-smooth system in the cases of free transient oscillations or forced oscillations under periodic external forcing. Efficiency of energy pumping is discussed.     

Usefulness of passive non-linear energy sinks in controlling galloping vibrations

The suppression of vibration amplitudes of an elastically-mounted square prism subjected to galloping oscillations by using a non-linear energy sink is investigated. The non-linear energy sink consists of a secondary system with linear damping and non-linear stiffness. A representative model that couples the transverse displacement of the square prism and the non-linear energy sink is constructed. A linear analysis is performed to determine the impacts of the non-linear energy sink parameters (mass, damping, and stiffness) on the coupled frequency and onset speed of galloping. It is demonstrated that increasing the damping of the non-linear energy sink can result in a significant increase in the onset speed of galloping. Then, the normal form of the Hopf bifurcation is derived to identify the type of instability and to determine the effects of the non-linear energy sink stiffness on the performance of the aeroelastic system near the bifurcation. The results show that the non-linear energy sink can be efficiently implemented to significantly reduce the galloping amplitude of the square prism. It is also shown that the multiple stable responses of the coupled aeroelastic system are obtained as well as the periodic responses, which are dependent on the considered non-linear energy sink parameters.