Responses of a strongly forced Mathieu equation Part 1: cyclic loading

This work concerns the response of a damped Mathieu equation with hard cyclic excitation at the same frequency as the parametric excitation. A second-order perturbation analysis using the method of multiple scales unfolds resonances and stability. Superharmonic and subharmonic resonances are analyzed and the effects of different parameters on the responses are examined. While superharmonic resonances of order two have been captured by a first-order analysis, the second-order analysis improves the prediction of the peak frequency. Superharmonic resonances of order three are captured only by the second-order analysis. The order-two superharmonic resonance amplitude is of order epsilon^0, and the order-three superharmonic is of order epsilon. As the parametric excitation level increases, the superharmonic resonances increase. An n-th order multiple scales analysis will indicate conditions of superharmonic resonances of order n+1. At the subharmonic of order one half, there is no steady-state resonance, but known subharmonic instability is unfolded consistently. Analytical expressions for resonant responses are presented and compared with numerical results for specific system parameters. The behavior of this system could be relevant to applications such as large wind-turbine blades and parametric resonators.