The Response of an Oscillator Moving along a Parabola to an External Excitation

The behavior of a mass point moving along a parabola under theeffect of an external periodic excitation in resonance with the naturalfrequency of the oscillator is studied. The asymptotic perturbationmethod based on temporal rescaling and balancing of the harmonic termswith a simple iteration is used in order to determine the nonlinearmodulation equations for the amplitude and the phase of the oscillation.External force-response curves are shown and moreover jump phenomena arealso observed. In certain cases a second low frequency appears inaddition to the forcing frequency and then stable two-periodquasi-periodic motions are present with amplitudes depending on theinitial conditions. The value of the low frequency depends on theamplitude of the external excitation. A higher order perturbationanalysis is developed and the validity of the method is highlighted bycomparing the leading order and the higher order approximate analyticsolutions to numerical results.