Nonlinear Dynamics of an Electromagnetically Actuated Cantilever Beam Under Harmonic External Excitation

The present work is devoted to the study of nonlinear vibrations of an electromagnetically actuated cantilever beam subject to harmonic external excitation. The soft actuator that controls the vibratory motion of such components of a robotic structure led to a strongly nonlinear governing differential equation, which was solved in this work by using a highly accurate technique, namely the Optimal Auxiliary Functions Method. Comparisons between the results obtained using our original approach with those of numerical integration show the efficiency and reliability of our procedure, which can be applied to give an explicit analytical approximate solution in two cases: the nonresonant case and the nearly primary resonance. Our technique is effective, simple, easy to use, and very accurate by means of only the first iteration. On the other hand, we present an analysis of the local stability of the model using Routh–Hurwitz criteria and the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix. Global stability is analyzed by means of Lyapunov’s direct method and LaSalle’s invariance principle. For the first time, the Lyapunov function depends on the approximate solution obtained using OAFM. Also, Pontryagin’s principle with respect to the control variable is applied in the construction of the Lyapunov function.