Explicit Third-Order Model Reduction Formulas for General Nonlinear Mechanical Systems

Abstract: For general nonlinear mechanical systems, we derive closed-form, reduced-order models up to cubic order based on rigorous invariant manifold results. For conservative systems, the reduction is based on Lyapunov Subcenter Manifold (LSM) theory, whereas for damped-forced systems, we use Spectral Submanifold (SSM) theory. To evaluate our explicit formulas for the reduced model, no coordinate changes are required beyond an initial linear one. The reduced-order models we derive are simple and depend only on physical and modal parameters, allowing us to extract fundamental characteristics, such as backbone curves and forced-response curves, of multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical systems. To numerically verify the accuracy of the reduced models, we test the reduction formulas on several mechanical systems, including a higher-dimensional nonlinear Timoshenko beam.