GLOBAL TANGENCY AND TRANSVERSALITY OF PERIODIC FLOWS AND CHAOS IN A PERIODICALLY FORCED, DAMPED DUFFING OSCILLATOR
Authors: LUO ALBERT C. J. 
Published: March 2008

This paper presents how to apply a newly developed general theory for the global transversality and tangency of flows in n-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems to a 2-D nonlinear dynamical system (i.e. a periodically forced, damped Duffing oscillator). The global tangency and transversality of the periodic and chaotic motions to the separatrix for such a nonlinear system are discussed to help us understand the complexity of chaos in nonlinear dynamical systems. This paper presents the concept that the global transversality and tangency to the separatrix are independent of the Melnikov function (or the energy increment). Chaos in nonlinear dynamical systems makes the exact energy increment quantity to be chaotic no matter if the nonlinear dynamical systems have separatrices or not. The simple zero of the Melnikov function cannot be used to simply determine the existence of chaos in nonlinear dynamical systems. Through this paper, the expectation is that, from now on, one can use the alternative aspect to look into the complexity of chaos in nonlinear dynamical systems. Therefore, in this paper, the analytical conditions for global transversality and tangency of 2-D nonlinear dynamical systems are presented. The first integral quantity increment (i.e. the energy increment) for a certain time interval is achieved for periodic flows and chaos in the 2-D nonlinear dynamical systems. Under the perturbation assumptions and convergent conditions, the Melnikov function is recovered from the first integral quantity increment. A periodically forced, damped Duffing oscillator with a separatrix is investigated as a sampled problem. The corresponding analytical conditions for the global transversality and tangency to the separatrix are obtained and verified by numerical simulations. The switching planes and the corresponding local and global mappings are defined on the separatrix. The mapping structures are developed for local and global periodic flows passing through the separatrix. The mapping structures of global chaos in the damped Duffing oscillator are also discussed. Bifurcation scenarios of the damped Duffing oscillator are presented through the traditional Poincaré mapping section and the switching planes. The first integral quantity increment (i.e. L-function) is presented to observe the periodicity of flows. In addition, the global tangency of periodic flows in such an oscillator is measured by the G-function and G(1)-function, and is verified by numerical simulations. The first integral quantity increment of periodic flows is zero for their complete periodic cycles. Numerical simulations of chaos in such a Duffing oscillator are carried out through the Poincaré mapping sections. The conservative energy distribution, G-function and L-function along the displacement of Poincaré mapping points are presented to observe the complexity of chaos. The first integral quantity increment (i.e. L-function) of chaotic flows at the Poincaré mapping points is nonzero and chaotic. The switching planes of chaos are presented on the separatrix for a better understanding of the global transversality to the separatrix. The switching point distribution on the separatrix is presented and the switching G-function on the separatrix is given to show the global transversality of chaos on the separatrix. The analytical conditions are obtained from the new theory rather than the Melnikov method. The new conditions for the global transversality and tangency are more accurate and independent of the small parameters.