Proceedings of the 25th CANCAM

London, Ontario, Canada, May 31 June 4, 2014

FOURTH ORDER APPROXIMATE SOLUTIONS FOR

THE UNDAMPED FREE VIBRATION OF STRONGLY NONLINEAR
OSCILLATORS SUBLECT TO INITIAL DISPLACEMENTS
Vinicius B. F. Rabelo
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Lakehead University
Thunder Bay, ON, Canada
vbelemf@lakeheadu.ca

M. L. Liu
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Lakehead University
Thunder Bay, ON, Canada
mliu@lakeheadu.ca

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS: Large amplitude oscillation, fourth order

approximate solutions, free vibrations due to initial
displacement

that presented in Ref. 5. The motivation behind such an

extension is twofold. First of all, when applying the approach
presented in Ref. 5, that is, the third order approximation, to
the restrained cargo system of Ref. 7, the authors found that
the amplitude-dependent natural frequencies did not
converge in a monotonic fashion; therefore fourth order (or
even higher order) approximation would be deemed
necessary. Secondly, the fourth order extension lays the
foundation for higher order approximation and for
investigating undamped free vibrations due to arbitrary initial
conditions.
The organization of the paper is as follows. The current
section is Section 1, introduction. The proposed methodology
will be presented in Section 2, which is followed by an
illustrative example given in Section 3. Finally, conclusions
will be given.

INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY

Nonlinear oscillation has long been an important area of

investigations. This is especially the case in mechanical
engineering since many mechanical systems are inherently
nonlinear. As demonstrated in Refs. 1 and 2, many
methodologies have been developed to solve problems
involving nonlinear oscillation. They range from methods of
straightforward
expansion
and
Lindstedt-Poincar
perturbation, to methods of multiple scales, harmonic balance
and averaging.
With particular reference to undamped free vibration due
to initial displacement only, for example, Lin (Ref. 3)
investigated the Duffing oscillator with fifth order
nonlinearity by the parameter iteration method. In 2006, Lai
and Lim developed analytical approximate solutions to
strongly nonlinear third order Duffing oscillator (see Ref. 4).
These analytical approximate solutions were obtained by
successively applying Newton's method (for solving
nonlinear algebraic equations) in combination with the
harmonic balance method. The methodology was then
generalized and applied to a class of odd-functioned
nonlinear oscillators in Ref. 5. It is noted that, in both Refs. 4
and 5, the methodology and resulting approximate solutions
were up to the third order only.
In terms of undamped free vibrations due to arbitrary
initial conditions (that is, initial displacement and velocity
are both non-zero), Ref. 6 reported approximate solutions for
the third order Duffing oscillator and Duffing-harmonic
oscillator. Finally, for undamped vibrations in general, Ref. 7
presented jump frequencies and amplitude-frequency
diagrams of a restrained cargo system which was modeled as
a Duffing oscillator with various orders, in addition to natural
frequencies (which are amplitude dependent) of the oscillator
when in free vibration.
The investigation reported here is focused on obtaining
the fourth order approximate solutions for the undamped free
vibrations of strongly nonlinear oscillators due to initial
displacements. The proposed methodology is an extension of

In this section, a fourth order expansion to the analytical

approximate technique of Ref. 5 will be presented. For
completeness in presentation, some details of first, second
and third order approximation will be given. Readers can
refer to Ref. 5 for more details.
As mentioned in the introduction, the approach to the
analytical approximate solutions in Ref. 5 consisted of
successive applications of Newton's method in conjunction
with the harmonic balance method. Due to linearization by
using Newton's method prior to harmonic balancing, linear
algebraic equations were obtained instead of a system of
complex nonlinear algebraic equations that was typically the
outcome of harmonic balance method. The approach was
applicable over a large range of parameters, and was valid for
small as well as large amplitude of oscillation, as
demonstrated by Refs. 4 and 5.
The contribution of the present work is in the extension
to the fourth order. Furthermore, this extension lays the
foundation for approximate solutions of even higher orders,
and for incorporating non-zero initial velocities.

In this paper, the approach for obtaining fourth order

approximate solutions of a class of strongly nonlinear
oscillators is presented. The procedure combines the
Newton's method for solving a nonlinear algebraic equation
and the harmonic balance method, and is applied
successively to achieve approximations of higher and higher
orders. It is an extension of the analytical approximate
technique developed by Wu, Sun and Lim. An example is
included to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the
proposed technique.

A class of strongly nonlinear oscillators

Consider a conservative nonlinear oscillator described by the
following second order differential equation:

d2u ( )
+f u =0
2
dt

(1)

with initial conditions of

u ( 0 )= A ,

du
( 0 )=0
dt

(2)

where the nonlinear function f(u) is odd and satisfies uf(u) >
0 for u [-A, A], u 0. The period and corresponding
periodic solution are dependent on the oscillation amplitude
A.

Introducing a new independent variable

= t
where is the (unknown) circular natural frequency of the
oscillator. Eq. (1) can be rewritten as

u' ' + f (u )=0

u ( 0 )= A , u' ( 0 )=0

(12)

Third order approximation

In a similar fashion, the approximated periodic solution is

u3 ( )=u2 ( ) + u2 ( ) ,
3 ( A )=2 ( A ) + 2 ( A )

(13)

with

The approximated periodic solution is

u2 ( ) = y 1 ( cos cos 3 ) + y 2 (cos 3 cos 5 )

a
u1 ( )= A cos , 1 ( A ) = 1
A

(14)

(5)

4
f ( u 1 ( ) ) cos [ (2 i1 ) ] d
0

(6)

1 2 2 X
3 4 18Y
5 6
0

]{ } {

y1
2 c 12 X 2
y 2 = 2 c3 18Y 2
2
2 c5

(15)

where i = 1, 2, 3,

The constants 1 through 6 are

Second order approximation

1=d 0 d 42 2
2=d 2d 6
3=d 2 +d 4 d 0d 6+ 18 2
4=d 0+ d 6d 2d 818 2
5=d 4 + d 6d 2d 8
6=d 2 +d 8d 0d 10 +50 2

The approximated periodic solution now takes the form:

u2 ()=u1 ( ) + u1 ( ) ,
2 ( A )=1 ( A ) + 1 ( A)

(7)

u1 ( ) =x1 (cos cos 3 )

(8)

with

]{ } { }

b0 b4 2 1
2 A x 1
0
=
2 a3
b2 +b 4b 0b6 +18 1
0
1

c 2 i1 =

(9)

a2 i1 are as given
by Eq. (6). On the other hand, the coefficients b2 ( j1) are,
In Eq. (9), the Fourier coefficients

j1
( 2() ]

f u ( u 1 ( ) ) cos

(16)

and

1 are determined by

4
f ( u2 ( ) ) cos [ ( 2 i1 ) ] d
0
j1
( 2() ]

f u ( u2 ( ) ) cos

(17)

(10)

b2 ( j1)=

y 1 , y 2 and 2 are determined by

The unknowns

where a1 is a Fourier coefficient determined by,

X =A + x 1 , Y =x 1 .

where

(4)

First order approximation

where x1 and

(11)

(3)

where =2 and the prime denotes differentiation with

respect to . The initial conditions associated with Eq.
(3) are

a2 i1=

u2 ( )= X cos +Y cos 3

where fu denotes df/du and j = 1, 2, 3, . Once x1 is

determined, u2() becomes:

d 2 ( j1)=
Again, once
becomes

y1

and

y 2 are determined , u3 ( )

u3 ( )= X 1 cos +Y 1 cos 3 + Z1 cos 5

(18)

with

X 1= X + y 1 ,

Y 1=Y y 1+ y 2 , Z 1= y 2 .

e 2i1=

(19)
Fourth order approximation
Starting with the following approximated periodic solution

u 4 ( )=u 3 ( )+ u3 ( ) ,
4 ( A ) =3 ( A )+ 3 ( A)

(20)

where

4
f ( u3 ( ) ) cos [ ( 2i1 ) ] d
0
j1
( 2() ]

f u ( u3 ( ) ) cos

u3 ( ) =z1 ( cos cos 3 )+ z 2 ( cos 3 cos 5 )

+ z 3 ( cos 5 cos 7 )

f 2( j1)=

(21)
The four unknowns
determined by

1 2
4 5
7 8
10 11

z1 , z2 , z3

and

]{ }

3 2 X 1
z1
6 18 Y 1 z2
=R
9 50 Z 1 z3
12
0
3

are

{ }

Finally,

u4 ( )=X 2 cos +Y 2 cos 3 + Z 2 cos 5 z 3 cos 7

(26)
with

(22)

X 2= X 1+ z1 , Y 2=Y 1z 1 + z 2 , Z 2 =Z 1z 2 + z 3
(27)
In passing, it should be mentioned that Eqs. (22) through
(24) have been verified both manually and with the aid of
symbolic computation package MAPLE.

where

2 e 12 X 1 3
2 e 18 Y 1 3
R= 3
2 e5 50 Z 1 3
2e 7

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
(23)

and

In this section, an example will be presented to demonstrate

the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed methodology.
The nonlinear oscillator considered here is an oscillator with
fractional-power restoring force:
1

1=f 0f 4 2 3
2=f 2f 6
3=f 4 f 8+ 98 3
4 =f 2+ f 4 f 0f 6+ 18 3
5 =f 0 + f 6f 2f 818 3
6=f 2 +f 8 f 4f 10
7 =f 4+ f 6 f 2 f 8
8=f 2 +f 8 f 0f 10 +50 3
9=f 0 +f 10f 2 f 1250 3
10=f 6 + f 8f 4 f 10
11 =f 4 + f 10f 2f 12
12=f 2 +f 12f 0 f 14
The coefficients ei and fi are,

(25)

d u
+sign ( u )|u|3 =0
2
dt

(28)

where sign() being the signum function. This oscillator is

subject to the same initial conditions as given in Eq. (2). The
analytical (exact) period of this oscillator is

3
(
4)
T = 6
A
5
( )
4

(24)

1
3

(29)

with () denoting the gamma function.

For
1
3

f ( u ) =u ,

the

first

order

df
1
=f (u )= u
du u
3

2
3

approximation,

setting

,u 1 ( )=A cos and

applying Eq. (6) gets

1

a1= A 3

(30)

where

2
5

3
6

(31)

()()

Subsequently the period by first order approximation is

1

T1=

2 3
A

(32)

For the second order approximation, the required Fourier

coefficients are, by applying Eq. (6) and Eq. (10)
1

1
A3
5
2
4
b 0= A 3
3

a3 =

Table 1: Ratios of Approximated Periods to Te (A = 1)

2
b 2=
A3
3
2
8
b4 = A 3
15
2
7
b6 =
A3
15

(33)

2
6
A , 1=
A
85
425

Method
Present
study
Ref. 5
(Example 3)

T1/Te

T2/Te

T3/Te

T4/Te

0.994062

1.00115

0.999691

1.00014

0.994062

1.00115

0.999692

N/A

Table 2: Ratios of Approximated Periods to Te

A
0.00
5
0.01

Solving Eq. (9) yields,

x 1=

odd function f(u), albeit employment of numerical integration

when it is called for.
Table 2, on the other hand, lists the exact periods, and
the ratios of the computed approximate periods to their
respective exact ones, over a wide range of A. It is seen that,
(1) the ratio of approximated period to exact period remains
unchanged, over the entire range of A that was investigated,
for the first and second approximations; (2) the computed
approximate periods converge to the true period in an
oscillatory pattern similar to that of a damped free vibration;
that is, the first order approximation yields a lower bound
estimation on period, followed by an upper bound value as
given by the second order approximation, and so on and so
forth.
The time history plots of u1, u2, u3 and u4 versus real time
t are given in Fig.1 for A = 1 and in Fig. 2 for A = 250.

2
3

(34)

such that

0.1
1

87
2
u2 ( )= A cos A cos 3
85
85
2
419
2=
A 3
425
1
425 3
T 2=2
A
419

10
(35)

For the third and fourth order approximations, analytical

solutions could not be obtained due to the integrals defined
by Eq. (17) and Eq. (25). Numerical integration is adopted
instead. Specifically, the adaptive Simpson quadrature
available in Matlab is employed in the present study.
Table 1 below shows the ratios of approximated periods
to the exact period, or Te of Eq. (29). Amplitude A has been
set to unity for easy comparison with results in Ref. 5. It
should be noted that, for the oscillator defined by Eq. (28),
Ref. 5 did not follow strictly the approach it had outlined for
the third order approximation. Specifically, Z1 was given an
assumed form (see Eq. (67) in Ref. 5) instead of setting
Z 1= y 2 as indicated by Eq. (19). The present
approach is systematic, and is able to handle any complex

100
500

Te
1.0037
0
1.2645
8
2.7244
6
5.8696
6
12.645
8
27.244
6
46.587
6

T1/Te
0.99406
2
0.99406
2
0.99406
2
0.99406
2
0.99406
2
0.99406
2
0.99406
2

T2/Te
1.0011
5
1.0011
5
1.0011
5
1.0011
5
1.0011
5
1.0011
5
1.0011
5

T3/Te
0.99968
6
0.99968
6
0.99969
1
0.99969
1
0.99969
2
0.99969
2
0.99969
2

T4/Te
1.0001
3
1.0001
3
1.0001
4
1.0001
4
1.0001
4
1.0001
4
1.0001
4

CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a fourth order approximate solution for a class
of strongly nonlinear oscillators was presented. The
methodology can be seen as the extension of the analytical
approximate technique developed by Wu, Sun and Lim in
Ref. 5. The methodology consisted of successive applications
of Newton's method in conjunction with the harmonic
balance method. Due to linearization prior to harmonic
balancing, linear algebraic equations were obtained instead of
a system of complex nonlinear algebraic equations. The
approach was applicable over a large range of parameters,
and was valid for small as well as large amplitude of
oscillation. The illustrative example demonstrated the
effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed technique.

Furthermore, this methodology lays the foundation for

approximate solutions of even higher orders, and for
incorporating non-zero initial velocities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The first author gratefully acknowledges the financial
support by the Brazilian Government through CAPES,
Proc. 88888.020471/2013-00, a Science Without Borders
Scholarship which enabled him to spend one year in Canada.
He is currently at Universidade Federal do Cear, Brazil.

6.

Chen, Y.M., and Liu, J.K. 2007, A new method based

on the harmonic balance method for nonlinear
oscillations, Physics Letters A, Vol(368), pp. 371-378.

7.

Lesage, J. and Liu, M.L. 2008, On the investigation of a

restrained cargo system modeled as a Duffing oscillator
of various orders, 2008 ASME Early Career Technical
Conference, Miami, U.S.A., paper number 108.

REFERENCES
1.

Nayfeh, A.H. 1973, Perturbation Methods, Wiley, New

York.

2.

Nayfeh, A.H., and Monk, D.T. 1979, Nonlinear

Oscillations, Wiley, New York.

3.

Lin, J. 1999, A new approach to Duffing equation with

strong and high order nonlinearity, Communications in
Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, Vol(4),
pp. 132-135.

4.

Lai, S.K., and Lim, C.W. 2006, Higher-order

approximate solutions to a strongly nonlinear Duffing
Oscillator, International Journal for Computational
Methods in Engineering Science and Mechanics, Vol(7),
pp. 201-208.

5.

Wu, B.S., Sun, W.P., and Lim, C.W. 2006, An analytical

approximate technique for a class of strongly non-linear
oscillators, International Journal of Non-Linear
Mechanics, Vol(41), pp. 766-774.

Figure 1: Time History Plot of Oscillator when A = 1

Figure 2: Time History Plot of Oscillator when A = 250