Abstract
Steady state solutions for nonlinear dynamic problems are interesting because (1) the long time behaviors of many problems are of practical concern, and, (2) these behaviors are often difficult to predict. This paper first presents a brief description of a generalized harmonic balance method (GHB) for steady state solutions to nonlinear problems via a nonlinear oscillator problem with a quadratic nonlinearity. Using this approach, steady state solutions are obtained for problems with several parameters: damping, nonlinearity and frequency (subharmonic, superharmonic and primary resonance). These results, plotted in time evolution curves and phase diagrams are compared with those obtained by numerically integrating the original differential equations. The effect of initial conditions on long time solutions is discussed. This investigation indicates that (1) the GHB steady state is an excellent approximate solution to that of the original equation if such a solution is numerically stable, and (2) the GHB steady state simply indicates a region of instability when the numerical solution to the original equation, using a point in that region as the initial point, is unstable.