Oscillatory region and asymptotic solution of fractional van der Pol oscillator via residue harmonic balance technique

In this paper, a powerfully analytical technique is proposed for predicting and generating the steady state solution of the fractional differential system based on the method of harmonic balance. The zeroth-order approximation using just one Fourier term is applied to predict the parametric function for the boundary between oscillatory and non-oscillatory regions of the fractional van der Pol oscillator. The unbalanced residues due to Fourier truncation are considered iteratively by solving linear algebraic equations to improve the accuracy of the solutions successively. The highly accurate solutions to the angular frequency and limit cycle of fractional van der Pol oscillator are obtained and compared. The results reveal that the technique described in this paper is very effective and simple for obtaining asymptotic solution of nonlinear system having fractional order derivative. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.