Higher-order approximate periodic solution for the oscillator with strong nonlinearity of polynomial type

In this paper the harmonic balance method (HBM) is adopted for solving a special group of oscillators with strong nonlinear damping and elastic forces. The nonlinearity is of polynomial type. The motion is described with a strong nonlinear differential equation, whose approximate solution is assumed as a suitable sum of trigonometric functions. To find the most convenient combination of trigonometric functions as the probe function is the most important part of this investigation. Introducing the procedure of equating the terms with the same order of the trigonometric functions to zero, the problem is transformed into solving a system of nonlinear algebraic equations. Solving these equations the parameters of the solution up to high-order approximation are obtained. In the paper, the suggested solving procedure is applied for two nonlinear oscillator problems: free vibrations of a restrained uniform beam carrying an intermediate lumped mass and of a particle on a rotating parabola. The obtained approximate analytic solutions are compared with the already published results and with the numerically obtained solution. The solution up to third-order approximation is calculated. It is proved that the HBM with the suggested function gives more accurate results than the previous applied ones. Besides, the difference between the third-order approximate analytical solution and the numerical one is negligible. The method works well for different, even high, values of initial amplitudes.