Parametric Excitation for Two Internally Resonant van der Pol Oscillators

The response of a system of two nonlinearly coupled van der Poloscillators to a principal parametric excitation in the presence ofone-to-one internal resonance is investigated. The asymptoticperturbation method is applied to derive the slow flow equationsgoverning the modulation of the amplitudes and the phases of the twooscillators. These equations are used to determine steady-stateresponses, corresponding to a periodic motion for the starting system(synchronisation), and parametric excitation-response andfrequency-response curves. Energy considerations are used to studyexistence and characteristics of limit cycles of the slow flowequations. A limit cycle corresponds to a two-period amplitude- andphase-modulated motion for the van der Pol oscillators. Two-periodmodulated motion is also possible for very low values of the parametricexcitation and an approximate analytic solution is constructed for thiscase. If the parametric excitation increases, the oscillation period ofthe modulations becomes infinite and an infinite-period bifurcationsoccur. Analytical results are checked with numerical simulations.