Bifurcation analysis and limit cycle oscillation amplitude prediction methods applied to the aeroelastic galloping problem

A global stability and bifurcation analysis of the transverse galloping of a square section beam in a normal steady flow has been implemented. The model is an ordinary differential equation with polynomial damping nonlinearity. Six methods are used to predict bifurcation, the amplitudes and periods of the ensuing Limit Cycle Oscillations: (i) Cell Mapping, (ii) Harmonic Balance, (iii) Higher Order Harmonic Balance, (iv) Centre Manifold linearization, (v) Normal Form and (vi) numerical continuation. The resulting stability predictions are compared with each other and with results obtained from numerical integration. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique are discussed. It is shown that, despite the simplicity of the system, only two of the methods succeed in predicting its full response spectrum. These are Higher Order Harmonic Balance and numerical continuation. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.