Simultaneous normal form transformation and model-order reduction for systems of coupled nonlinear oscillators

In this paper, we describe a direct normal form decomposition for systems of coupled nonlinear oscillators. We demonstrate how the order of the system can be reduced during this type of normal form transformation process. Two specific examples are considered to demonstrate particular challenges that can occur in this type of analysis. The first is a 2 d.f. system with both quadratic and cubic nonlinearities, where there is no internal resonance, but the nonlinear terms are not necessarily ε1-order small. To obtain an accurate solution, the direct normal form expansion is extended to ε2-order to capture the nonlinear dynamic behaviour, while simultaneously reducing the order of the system from 2 to 1 d.f. The second example is a thin plate with nonlinearities that are ε1-order small, but with an internal resonance in the set of ordinary differential equations used to model the low-frequency vibration response of the system. In this case, we show how a direct normal form transformation can be applied to further reduce the order of the system while simultaneously obtaining the normal form, which is used as a model for the internal resonance. The results are verified by comparison with numerically computed results using a continuation software.