Proceedings of PACAM XII

12th Pan-American Congress of Applied Mechanics - PACAM XII

January 02-06, 2012, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Dynamics of a mass-spring-pendulum system with vastly different
frequencies
Hiba Sheheitli, [email protected]
Richard H. Rand, [email protected]
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Abstract. We investigate the dynamics of a simple pendulum coupled to a horizontal mass-spring system. The spring
is assumed to have a very large stiffness value such that the natural frequency of the mass-spring oscillator, when un-
coupled from the pendulum, is an order of magnitude larger than that of the oscillations of the pendulum. The leading
order dynamics of the autonomous coupled system is studied using the method of Direct Partition of Motion(DPM),
in conjunction with a rescaling of fast time in a manner that is inspired by the WKB method. We particularly study the
motions in which the amplitude of the motion of the harmonic oscillator is an order of magnitude smaller than that of
the pendulum. In this regime, a pitchfork bifurcation of periodic orbits is found to occur for energy values larger that
a critical value. The bifurcation gives rise to non-local periodic and quasi-periodic orbits in which the pendulum
oscillates about an angle between zero and /2 from the down right position. The bifurcating periodic orbits are
nonlinear normal modes of the coupled system and correspond to xed points of a Poincare map. An approximate
expression for the value of the new xed points of the map is obtained. These formal analytic results are conrmed
by comparison with numerical integration.
Keywords: Coupled oscillators, DPM, Method of direct partition of motion, WKB method, Bifurcations
1. INTRODUCTION
The method of direct partition of motion (DPM), formalized by Blekhman (Blekhman, 2000), serves to facilitate
the study of the non-trivial effects of fast excitation that has been elaborately studied in recent years (Blekhman, 2000),
(Jensen, 1999), (Thomsen 2003, 2005). In most problems addressed in the literature, the fast excitation is due to an
external source, that is, the system considered is non-autonomous. However, similar non-trivial effects could occur even
if the fast excitation is internal to the system, instead of coming from an external source. An example of such a case
would be a nonlinear oscillator coupled to a much faster oscillator (Tuwankotta and Verhulst, 2003), (Nayfeh and Chin,
1995), (Sheheitli and Rand, 2011). In these latter autonomous systems with widely fast frequencies, the leading order
dynamics of the fast oscillator is unaffected by the slow oscillator. This is not the case for the system we study in this
paper, as the amplitude and frequency of the fast oscillation, to leading order, are found to be a function of the amplitude
of the slow oscillation. This is established by observing that the equation of the fast degree of freedom can be treated
as a fast oscillator with a slowly varying frequency, for which the WKB method is particularly suited, and thus using a
transformation of fast time analogous to that proposed by the WKB method (Wilcox, 1995).
2. THE MASS-SPRING-PENDULUM SYSTEM
Figure 1: Schematic for the mass-spring-pendulumsystem
We consider a simple pendulumwhose point of suspension is connected to a mass on a spring that is restricted to move
Proceedings of PACAM XII
12th Pan-American Congress of Applied Mechanics - PACAM XII
January 02-06, 2012, Port of Spain, Trinidad
horizontally, as shown in Fig.1. Ignoring dissipation, the system is governed by the following equations of motion:
ml
2

+ml x

cos + mgl sin = 0

(M + m) x

+ml

cos ml
2
sin +k x = 0
where primes denotes differentiation with respect to time . We introduce the following change of variables:
x = x
_
l , t =
_
g/l
The nondimensionalized equations, which we refer to as the full system, become:

+ sin = xcos
x +

2
x =
_

cos

2
sin
_
where =
m
M + m
,

2
=
kl
g (M + m)
(1)
where dots represent differentiation with respect to time t.
2.1 Assumptions
We are interested in the case where the linear oscillator has a natural frequency that is an order of magnitude larger
than the linearized frequency of the pendulum, and its motion has an amplitude that is an order of magnitude smaller than
that of the pendulum. This is implemented through the following rescaling: x = ,

2
=
2
_

2
. Here, and are
O(1) quantities while << 1. Without loss of generality, we take = 1. The rescaled equations become:

+ sin = cos
+
1

2
=

cos

2
sin
_
(2)
This system has a conserved quantity that can be expressed as:
h =
1
2

2

2
+
1
2

2
+

cos +
1
2

2
+(1 cos )
2.2 The bifurcation of periodic orbits
We numerically integrate the full system in Eqs.(1), for typical parameter values and initial conditions (ICs), in order
to illustrate the bifurcation. As an example, we take = 0.4 and

= 50 ( = 0.02). Since the system is conservative,
we will look at how the dynamics change as the energy is increased. Fig.2a shows the Poincare map for the energy level
h = 0.5. The shown xed point (center) of the map corresponds to a periodic orbit in which x. This periodic orbit
is a nonlinear normal mode of the coupled system that appears as a nearly straight line through the origin if viewed in the
conguration plane vs. x. Fig.2b shows the Poincare map for h = 0.7. We can see from the Poincare map that the xed
point corresponding to the nonlinear normal mode with x has lost stability and is now a saddle point of the map.
Consequently, we can predict that two new xed points (centers) were born in the process, and closed orbits of the map
about the new centers would correspond to oscillations of the pendulum about a non-zero angle. The aim of this paper is
to shed light on these latter non-trivial solutions, in which the pendulum oscillates about a non-zero angle, and describe
their dependence on initial conditions and the parameter .
3. THE APPROXIMATE SOLUTION
In Eqs.(2), each of the equations contains the second derivative of both and . We can rewrite the system of equations
so that each second derivative appears in only one of the equations, as follows:

+
1
1 cos
2

_
sin +

2
cos sin
1

cos
_
= 0
+
1
1 cos
2

_
1

2
sin + cos sin
_
_
= 0
Proceedings of PACAM XII
12th Pan-American Congress of Applied Mechanics - PACAM XII
January 02-06, 2012, Port of Spain, Trinidad
0.4 0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
1.6
1.5
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1
0.9
0.8

dot
poincare section x=0, xdot >0 , = 50, = 0.4 , h = 0.5
(a)
0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
1.8
1.7
1.6
1.5
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1
0.9

dot
poincare section x=0, xdot >0 , = 50, = 0.4 , h = 0.7
(b)
Figure 2: Poincare map x = 0, x > 0 for: (a) h = 0.5, (b) h = 0.7
In this latter form, the equation appears as that of a nonlinear oscillator parametrically forced by , which we expect to be
a fast oscillation. Hence this suggests the partitioningof the motion into a slowcomponent overlaid by a fast component,
as in the DPM ansatz (Blekhman, 2000). Also, we can see that the equation appears as that of a fast oscillator with a
frequency whose magnitude is modulated by which we expect to be a slow oscillation, that is, it appears as an equation
of a fast oscillator with a slowly changing frequency, similar to that which the WKB method (Wilcox, 1995) is well suited
for. This suggests rescaling fast time in the following manner:
dT
dt
=
(t)

or T =
t
_
0
(t

dt

and the assumed solution becomes:

_
_
_
= (t, T)
(t, T) =
0
(t) +
1
(t, T)
Here, (t) is to be chosen such that the fast oscillation is a perturbation of a harmonic oscillation on the new timescale
T. That is, we will choose (t) so that the equation has the form:

T
2
+ + O() = 0 where (t) =
1
_
1 cos
2

0
then, an approximate expression for can be found using regular perturbations. After applying the standard DPM proce-
dure (Blekhman, 2000), we nd that, to leading order,
0
is governed by the following equation (see (Sheheitli and Rand,
to appear) for the details):
d
2

0
dt
2
+ sin
0

1
2
C
2
cos
0
sin
0
(1 cos
2

0
)
_
1 cos
2

0
= 0 (3)

1
is found to be
1
= cos
0
and, to leading order, is given by C
_
(t) cos T (see (Shehetli and Rand,
to appear) for the details), where C is an arbitrary constant that depends on initial conditions. Then the motion of the
pendulum, in the rescaled system described by Eqs.(2), can be expressed as:

0
cos
0
Recall that Eqs.(2) are a rescaled version of the original system of interest given by Eqs.(1), where is related to the
motion of the mass-spring oscillator as follows: x = . Hence, the solution to Eqs.(1), for the assumed regime of
motion, can be expressed in terms of the variables of Eqs.(1) as follows:

0
x cos
0
, x C
_
(t) cos T (4)
Proceedings of PACAM XII
12th Pan-American Congress of Applied Mechanics - PACAM XII
January 02-06, 2012, Port of Spain, Trinidad
4. THE SLOW DYNAMICS
At the end of the DPM procedure that is described in (Sheheitli and Rand, to appear), the solution to the two degree
of freedom mass-spring-pendulum system is expressed in Eqs.(4) in terms of
0
, the leading order slow motion of the
pendulum, which is governed by Eq.(3). The arbitrary constant C that appears in the equation can be expressed in terms
of the initial conditions. For initial zero velocities, the initial conditions take the form:
_

(0) = 0
(0) = A
,
_
x (0) = 0
x (0) = B

_
_
_

0
(0) = 0 ,
0
(0) A
x (0) = B C
_
(0)
C = B
_
1 cos
2
A
_1
4
Now, we rewrite the equation governing
0
as a system of two rst order equations:

0
= ,

= sin
0
+
1
2
C
2
sin
0
cos
0
(1 cos
2

0
)
_
1 cos
2

0
(5)
For small enough values of C, the above systemhas a neutrally stable equilibriumpoint (center) at the origin ( = 0,
0
= 0)
and two saddle points at ( = 0,
0
= , ), so that the phase portrait resembles that of the simple pendulum. As C
increases in value, a pitchfork bifurcation takes place, in which the origin becomes a saddle point and two new centers are
born. The critical value of C is related to the parameter as follows (see (Sheheitli and Rand, to appear) for the details):
C
2
cr
= 2 (1 )
3
2
(6)
In (Sheheitli and Rand, to appear), it is explained how this condition on C translates into the following condition on the
energy value h:
h
cr
= 1
4.1 The predicted nonlinear normal modes
Note that each value of C leads to a phase portrait lled with closed orbits, however, out of those orbits, the only one
which corresponds to a solution of the full system (1) is that associated with the specic ICs that led to that value of C.
An interesting case occurs when the choice of ICs results in a phase portrait that has a non-trivial equilibriumpoint which
coincides in value with the initial
0
amplitude, A. That is, we start with ICs of the form:
_

(0) = 0
(0) =
0
(0) = A
,
_
x(0) = 0
x (0) = B
and the corresponding value of C results in non-trivial equilibriumpoints (centers) for the
0
equation at:

0
= E , = 0
Then, if E = A,
0
will remain equal to E for all time. It would mean that we are starting at a neutrally stable equilibrium
point of the
0
equation, so the solution will remain at that point for all time.
In (Sheheitli and Rand, to appear), it is shown that these special values of initial amplitude can be expressed in terms of
h and as:
(0) = A

= cos
1
_
_
h
_
(h )
2
+ 8
4
_
_
(7)
The corresponding value of x is expressed as:
x (0) = B

=
_
2 (h (1 cos A)) (8)
Hence, we predict that these special initial amplitudes, with zero initial velocities, will lead to a solution in which:
A

x cos A

(9)
Such a solution would be a nonlinear normal mode of the coupled mass-spring-pendulum system and corresponds to a
non-trivial xed points of the Poincare map.
Proceedings of PACAM XII
12th Pan-American Congress of Applied Mechanics - PACAM XII
January 02-06, 2012, Port of Spain, Trinidad
4.2 Relation of
0
to the Poincare map
For a given energy level, the phase portrait of the
0
equation is lled with closed orbits and the picture is topolog-
ically similar to that of the Poincare map. That is, for a given initial condition, the resulting orbit in the
0
phase plane
corresponds to a closed orbit in the Poincare map, however, the orbits are not identical. This is due to the fact that, while

0
,

differs from

0
by an O(1) quantity; as shown in (Sheheitli and Rand, to appear), for the points of the Poincare
map,

can be expressed in terms of

0
as follows:

Pm

0
C
_
1 cos
2

0
_

3
4
cos
0
(10)
So for given ICs, we can obtain the corresponding orbit in the Poincare map by rst numerically integrating the
0
equa-
tion to obtain
0
and

0
and then generating the orbit in the Poincare map by plotting the corresponding values of

Pm
vs.
0
. This means that we can generate an approximate picture of the Poincare map of the full system (1) by numerically
integrating the slow dynamics equation governing
0
instead of integrating the full system (1) which contains the fast
dynamics and thus requires a much smaller step size of integration.
Also, by comparing this procedure with the results of numerical integration, we can obtain a check on the accuracy
of the various approximations made in this work.
5. COMPARISON TO NUMERICS
We compare the solution resulting from the numerical integration of the original equations with that from the integra-
tion of the
0
equation. We have set = 0.4 and

= 50 ( = 0.02). In the plots of Fig.3, the thick line correspond
0 10 20 30 40 50
0.4
0.2
0
0.2
0.4

t
(a)
0 10 20 30 40 50
0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4

t
(b)
Figure 3: Comparison plots of vs. time for ICs with (a) A=/9 , B=0.9756 (h=0.5) (b) A=/9 , B=1.1626 (h=0.7)
to vs. time for the solution of the numerical integration of the full system (1), and the apparent thickness is due to the
fast component present in the oscillation of the pendulum; the thin line corresponds to the approximate solution, that is
from the numerical integration of the
0
equation, and captures only the leading order slow component of the pendulum
oscillation. Fig.4 displays the Poincare map orbits for h = 1. Near each of the orbits, a small arrow points to the orbit
which is predicted fromthe
0
equation for corresponding initial conditions. We can see that that the approximate solution
compares well with that from numerical integration of the full system (1).
6. CONCLUSION
We have used the method of direct partition of motion to study the dynamics of a mass-spring-pendulum system,
in which the harmonic oscillator is restricted to move horizontally. We have considered the case where the stiffness
of the spring is very large, so that the frequency of the oscillation of the uncoupled harmonic oscillator is an order of
magnitude larger than that of the uncoupled pendulum. We have also limited our attention to the regime of motion where
the amplitude of motion of the harmonic oscillator is an order of magnitude smaller than that of the pendulum. Under
these assumptions, an approximate expression for the solution of the two degree of freedom system is found in terms of

0
, the leading order slow oscillation of the pendulum. An equation governing
0
is presented and found to undergo a
pitchfork bifurcation for a critical value of C which is a parameter related to the initial amplitudes of and x. It is shown
Proceedings of PACAM XII
12th Pan-American Congress of Applied Mechanics - PACAM XII
January 02-06, 2012, Port of Spain, Trinidad
1 0.5 0 0.5 1
2
1.5
1
0.5
dot
= 0.4 , h = 1
Figure 4: Comparison of the predicted Poincare map orbits (arrows) with those from the integration of the full system (1)
that the pitchfork bifurcation in the slowdynamics equation corresponds to a pitchfork bifurcation of periodic orbits of the
full system (1) that occurs as the energy is increased past a critical value which is expressed in terms of the parameter .
This bifurcation can be seen to occur in the Poincare map of the full system (1), where the xed point corresponding to the
nonlinear normal mode x loses stability and two new centers are born in the map. The new centers correspond to
new periodic motions, which are nonlinear normal modes with A

x cos A

, where the expression for A

is found
in terms of and h. For these modes, the motion of the pendulum is predicted to be a small fast oscillation about the
non-zero value = A

. Along with these special motions, quasi-periodic motions exist in which the pendulumundergoes
slow oscillation about a non-zero angle, with overlaid fast oscillation. These latter orbits correspond to closed orbits about
the new centers in the Poincare map. A relation between

and

0
is given for points of the Poincare map, such that the
orbits of the map can be generated approximately by numerically integrating the slow dynamics equation. Finally, the
approximate solution, as well as the predications made based on it, are checked against numerical integration of the full
system (1) and found to agree well.
7. REFERENCES
Blekhman, I.I., 2000, "Vibrational mechanics-nonlinear dynamic effects, general approach, application", Singapore:
World Scientic.
Jensen, J.S., 1999, "Non-Trivial Effects of Fast Harmonic Excitation", PhD dissertation, DCAMM Report, S83, Dept.
Solid Mechanics, Technical University of Denmark.
Nayfeh, A.H., Chin, C.M., 1995, "Nonlinear Interactions in a parametrically excited system with widely spaced frequen-
cies", Nonlinear Dynamics 7: 195-216.
Sheheitli, H. , Rand, R.H., 2011, "Dynamics of three coupled limit cycle oscillators with vastly different frequencies",
Nonlinear Dynamics 64: 131-145.
Sheheitli, H. , Rand, R.H., (to appear) "Dynamics of a mass-spring-pendulum system with vastly different frequencies".
Thomsen, J.J., 2003, "Vibrations and Stability, Advanced Theory, Analysis and Tools", Germany: Springer-Verlag Berlin
Heidelberg.
Thomsen, J.J., 2005, "Slow high-frequency effects in mechanics: problems, solutions, potentials", Int. J. Bifurcation
Chaos 15, pp. 2799-2818.
Tuwankotta, J.M. , Verhulst, F., 2003, "Hamiltonian systems with widely separated frequencies", Nonlinearity 16: 689-
706.
Wilcox, D.C., 1995, "Perturbation methods in the computer age", DCW Industries Inc., California.