Dimensional Reduction for Nonlinear Time-Delayed Systems Composed of Stiff and Soft Substructures

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach, based on the center manifoldtheorem, to reducing the dimension of nonlinear time-delay systemscomposed of both stiff and soft substructures. To complete the reductionprocess, the dynamic equation of a delayed system is first formulated asa set of singular perturbed equations that exhibit dynamic behaviorevolving in two different time scales. In terms of the fast time scale,the dynamic equation of system can be converted into the standard formof a functional differential equation in critical cases, namely, to aform that can be treated by means of the center manifold theorem. Then,the approximated center manifold is determined by solving a series ofboundary-value problems. The center manifold theorem ensures that thedominant dynamics of the system is described by a set of ordinarydifferential equations of low order, the dimension of which is identicalto that of the phase space of slowly variable states. As an applicationof the proposed approach, a detailed stability analysis is made for aquarter car model equipped with an active suspension with a time delaycaused by a hydraulic actuator. The analysis shows that the dimensionalreduction is surprisingly effective within a wide range of the systemparameters.