Transition from Planar to Whirling Oscillations in a Certain Nonlinear System

Abstract

A single-mass two-degrees-of-freedom system is considered, witha radially oriented nonlinear restoring force. The latter is smooth andbecomes infinite at a certain value of a radial displacement. Stabilityanalysis is made for planar oscillation, or motion along a givendirection. As long as this motion is periodic, the nonlinearity in therestoring force provides a periodic parametric excitation in thetransverse direction. The linearized stability analysis is reduced tostudy of the Mathieu equation for the (infinitesimal) motions in thetransverse direction. For the case of free oscillations in the givendirection an exact solution is obtained, since a specific analyticalform is used for the (strongly nonlinear) restoring force, which permitsexplicit integration of the equation of motion. Stability of the planarmotion in this case is shown to be very sensitive to even slightdeviations from polar symmetry in the restoring force (as well as to theamplitude of oscillations in the given direction). Numerical integrationof the original equations of motion shows the resulting motion to be awhirling type indeed in case of the transversal instability. For thecase of a sinusoidal forcing in the given direction solution for the(periodic) response is obtained by Krylov–Bogoliubov averaging. Thisresults in the ‘transmitted’ Ince–Strutt chart – namely, stabilitychart for transverse direction on the amplitude-frequency plane of theexcitation in the original direction.