Periodic Behavior of a Nonlinear Third Order Vibrating System

In modeling of dynamical systems, differential equations, either ordinary or partial, are a common outcome of the modeling process. The basic problem becomes the existence of solution of these deferential equations. In the early days of the solution of deferential equations at the beginning of the eighteenth century the methods for determining the existence of nontrivial solution were so limited and developed very much on an ad hoc basis. Most of the efforts on dynamical system are related to the second order systems, derived by applying Newton equation of motion to dynamical systems. But, behavior of some dynamical systems is governed by equations falling down in the general nonlinear third order differential equation x″′+f(t,x,x′,x″)=0, sometimes as a result of combination of a first and a second order system. It is shown in this paper that these equations could have nontrivial solutions, if x, x′, x″, and f(t,x,x′,x″) are bounded. Furthermore, it is shown that the third order differential equation has a τ-periodic solution if f(t,x,x′,x″) is an even function with respect to x′. For this purpose, the concept of Green’s function and the Schauder’s fixed-point theorem has been used.