Bilinear modal representations for reduced-order modeling of localized piecewise-linear oscillators

A novel reduced-order modeling method for vibration problems of elastic structures with localized piecewise-linearity is proposed. The focus is placed upon solving nonlinear forced response problems of elastic media with contact nonlinearity, such as cracked structures and delaminated plates. The modeling framework is based on observations of the proper orthogonal modes computed from nonlinear forced responses and their approximation by a truncated set of linear normal modes with special boundary conditions. First, it is shown that a set of proper orthogonal modes can form a good basis for constructing a reduced-order model that can well capture the nonlinear normal modes. Next, it is shown that the subspace spanned by the set of dominant proper orthogonal modes can be well approximated by a slightly larger set of linear normal modes with special boundary conditions. These linear modes are referred to as bi-linear modes, and are selected by an elaborate methodology which utilizes certain similarities between the bi-linear modes and approximations for the dominant proper orthogonal modes. These approximations are obtained using interpolated proper orthogonal modes of smaller dimensional models. The proposed method is compared with traditional reduced-order modeling methods such as component mode synthesis, and its advantages are discussed. Forced response analyses of cracked structures and delaminated plates are provided for demonstrating the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methodology.