An analytical approximate technique for a class of strongly non-linear oscillators

An analytical approximate technique for large amplitude oscillations of a class of conservative single degree-of-freedom systems with odd non-linearity is proposed. The method incorporates salient features of both Newton's method and the harmonic balance method. Unlike the classical harmonic balance method, accurate analytical approximate solutions are possible because linearization of the governing differential equation by Newton's method is conducted prior to harmonic balancing. The approach yields simple linear algebraic equations instead of non-linear algebraic equations without analytical solution. With carefully constructed iterations, only a few iterations can provide very accurate analytical approximate solutions for the whole range of oscillation amplitude beyond the domain of possible solution by the conventional perturbation methods or harmonic balance method. Three examples including cubic-quintic Duffing oscillators are presented to illustrate the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed technique. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.