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.