An analytic approximate approach for free oscillations of self-excited systems

A new analytic approximate technique for non-linear problems, namely the homotopy analysis method, is employed to propose an approach for free oscillations of self-excited systems. Different from perturbation methods on this topic, this approach does not depend upon any small/large parameters at all and therefore is valid for free oscillations of all self-excited systems. Besides, unlike other analytic techniques, this approach provides us with a convenient way to control the convergence of approximation series and adjust convergence regions when necessary. Two examples are employed to illustrate the validity and flexibility of this approach.