Duffing equation

The Duffing equation (or Duffing oscillator), named after Georg

Duffing (1861–1944), is a non-linear second-order differential
equation used to model certain damped and driven oscillators. The
equation is given by

where the (unknown) function is the displacement at

time is the first derivative of with respect to time, i.e.
velocity, and is the second time-derivative of i.e. acceleration. A Poincaré section of the forced
The numbers and are given constants. Duffing equation suggesting chaotic
behaviour
The equation describes the motion of a damped oscillator with a and .
more complex potential than in simple harmonic motion (which
corresponds to the case ); in physical terms, it models,
for example, an elastic pendulum whose spring's stiffness does not exactly obey Hooke's law.

The Duffing equation is an example of a dynamical system that exhibits chaotic behavior. Moreover, the
Duffing system presents in the frequency response the jump resonance phenomenon that is a sort of
frequency hysteresis behaviour.

Contents
Parameters
Methods of solution
Boundedness of the solution for the unforced oscillator
Undamped oscillator
Damped oscillator
Frequency response
Jumps
Examples
References
Inline
Historical
Other
External links

Parameters
The parameters in the above equation are:
 controls the amount of damping,
controls the linear stiffness,
controls the amount of non-linearity in the restoring force; if the Duffing equation
describes a damped and driven simple harmonic oscillator,
is the amplitude of the periodic driving force; if the system is without a driving force,
and
is the angular frequency of the periodic driving force.

The Duffing equation can be seen as describing the oscillations of a mass attached to a nonlinear spring and
a linear damper. The restoring force provided by the nonlinear spring is then

When and the spring is called a hardening spring. Conversely, for it is a softening
spring (still with ). Consequently, the adjectives hardening and softening are used with respect to the
Duffing equation in general, dependent on the values of (and ).[1]

The number of parameters in the Duffing equation can be reduced by two through scaling (in accord with
the Buckingham π theorem), e.g. the excursion and time can be scaled as:[2] and
assuming is positive (other scalings are possible for different ranges of the parameters, or for different
emphasis in the problem studied). Then:[3]

where and

The dots denote differentiation of with respect to This shows that the solutions to the forced and
damped Duffing equation can be described in terms of the three parameters ( and ) and two initial
conditions (i.e. for and ).

Methods of solution
In general, the Duffing equation does not admit an exact symbolic solution. However, many approximate
methods work well:

Expansion in a Fourier series may provide an equation of motion to arbitrary precision.

The term, also called the Duffing term, can be approximated as small and the system
treated as a perturbed simple harmonic oscillator.
The Frobenius method yields a complex but workable solution.
Any of the various numeric methods such as Euler's method and Runge–Kutta methods can
be used.
The homotopy analysis method (HAM) has also been reported for obtaining approximate
solutions of the Duffing equation, also for strong nonlinearity.[4][5]

In the special case of the undamped ( ) and undriven ( ) Duffing equation, an exact solution can
be obtained using Jacobi's elliptic functions.[6]

Boundedness of the solution for the unforced oscillator

Undamped oscillator

Multiplication of the undamped and unforced Duffing equation, with gives:[7]

with H a constant. The value of H is determined by the initial conditions and

The substitution in H shows that the system is Hamiltonian:

with

When both and are positive, the solution is bounded:[7]

and

with the Hamiltonian H being positive.

Damped oscillator

Similarly, for the damped oscillator,[8]

since for damping. Without forcing the damped Duffing oscillator will end up at (one of) its stable
equilibrium point(s). The equilibrium points, stable and unstable, are at If the stable
equilibrium is at If and the stable equilibria are at and

Frequency response
The forced Duffing oscillator with cubic nonlinearity is described by the following ordinary differential
equation:

The frequency response of this oscillator describes the amplitude of steady state response of the equation
(i.e. ) at a given frequency of excitation For a linear oscillator with the frequency response
is also linear. However, for a nonzero cubic coefficient , the frequency response becomes nonlinear.
Depending on the type of nonlinearity, the
Duffing oscillator can show hardening, softening
or mixed hardening–softening frequency
response. Anyway, using the homotopy analysis
method or harmonic balance, one can derive a
frequency response equation in the following
form:[9][5]

Frequency response as a function of for the

Duffing equation, with and damping
The dashed parts of the frequency response are
unstable.[3]

For the parameters of the Duffing equation, the above algebraic equation gives the steady state oscillation
amplitude at a given excitation frequency.

Derivation of the frequency response

Using the method of harmonic balance, an approximate solution to the Duffing
equation is sought of the form:[9]

with and

Application in the Duffing equation leads to:

Neglecting the superharmonics at the two terms preceding and

have to be zero. As a result,

Squaring both equations and adding leads to the amplitude frequency response:

as stated above.
Jumps

For certain ranges of the parameters in the Duffing equation, the

frequency response may no longer be a single-valued function of
forcing frequency For a hardening spring oscillator ( and
large enough positive ) the frequency response
overhangs to the high-frequency side, and to the low-frequency
side for the softening spring oscillator ( and ).
The lower overhanging side is unstable – i.e. the dashed-line parts
in the figures of the frequency response – and cannot be realized
for a sustained time. Consequently, the jump phenomenon shows
up: Jumps in the frequency response.
The parameters are: ,
when the angular frequency is slowly increased (with and [9]
other parameters fixed), the response amplitude drops
at A suddenly to B,
if the frequency is slowly decreased, then at C the amplitude jumps up to D, thereafter
following the upper branch of the frequency response.

The jumps A–B and C–D do not coincide, so the system shows hysteresis depending on the frequency
sweep direction.[9]

Examples
Some typical examples of the time series and phase portraits of the Duffing equation, showing the
appearance of subharmonics through period-doubling bifurcation – as well chaotic behavior – are shown in
the figures below. The forcing amplitude increases from to The other parameters have
the values: and The initial conditions are and
The red dots in the phase portraits are at times which are an integer multiple of the period [10]

References

Inline
1. Thompson, J.M.T.; Stewart, H.B. (2002).
Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos. John Wiley
& Sons. p. 66. ISBN 9780471876847.
2. Lifshitz, R.; Cross, M.C. (2008). "Nonlinear
mechanics of nanomechanical and
micromechanical resonators". In Schuster,
H.G. (ed.). Reviews of Nonlinear Dynamics
and Complexity. Wiley. pp. 8–9.
ISBN 9783527407293. LCCN 2008459659
(https://lccn.loc.gov/2008459659).
 3. Brennan, M.J.; Kovacic, I.; Carrella, A.;
Time traces and phase portraits
Waters, T.P. (2008). "On the jump-up and
jump-down frequencies of the Duffing
oscillator". Journal of Sound and Vibration.
318 (4–5): 1250–1261.
doi:10.1016/j.jsv.2008.04.032 (https://doi.or period-1 oscillation at
g/10.1016%2Fj.jsv.2008.04.032).
4. Kovacic & Brennan (2011, pp. 123–127)
5. Tajaddodianfar, F.; Yazdi, M.R.H.;
Pishkenari, H.N. (2016). "Nonlinear period-2 oscillation at
dynamics of MEMS/NEMS resonators:
analytical solution by the homotopy analysis
method". Microsystem Technologies.
doi:10.1007/s00542-016-2947-7 (https://doi.
org/10.1007%2Fs00542-016-2947-7). period-4 oscillation at

6. Rand, R.H. (2012), Lecture notes on

nonlinear vibrations (https://ecommons.corn
ell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/28989/Nonlin
earVibrations_ver53.pdf?sequence=2&isAll period-5 oscillation at
owed=y) (PDF), 53, Cornell University,
pp. 13–17
7. Bender & Orszag (1999, p. 546)
8. Takashi Kanamaru (ed.). "Duffing oscillator" chaos at
(http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Duffing_
oscillator). Scholarpedia.
9. Jordan & Smith (2007, pp. 223–233)
10. Based on the examples shown in Jordan &
Smith (2007, pp. 453–462) period-2 oscillation at

Historical
Duffing, G. (1918), Erzwungene Schwingungen bei veränderlicher Eigenfrequenz und ihre
technische Bedeutung [Forced oscillations with variable natural frequency and their
technical relevance] (in German), Heft 41/42, Braunschweig: Vieweg, vi+134 pp.,
OCLC 12003652 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12003652)

Other
Addison, P.S. (1997), Fractals and Chaos: An illustrated course, CRC Press, pp. 147–148,
ISBN 9780849384431
Bender, C.M.; Orszag, S.A. (1999), Advanced Mathematical Methods for Scientists and
Engineers I: Asymptotic Methods and Perturbation Theory, Springer, pp. 545–551,
ISBN 9780387989310
Jordan, D.W.; Smith, P. (2007), Nonlinear ordinary differential equations – An introduction for
scientists and engineers (4th ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-920824-1
Kovacic, I.; Brennan, M.J., eds. (2011), The Duffing Equation: Nonlinear Oscillators and their
Behaviour, Wiley, 392 pp., ISBN 978-0-470-71549-9

External links
 Duffing oscillator on Scholarpedia (http://scholarpedia.org/article/Duffing_oscillator)
MathWorld page (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DuffingDifferentialEquation.html)
Pchelintsev, A.N.; Ahmad, S. (2020). "Solution of the Duffing equation by the power series
method" (http://vestnik.tstu.ru/rus/t_26/pdf/26_1_013.pdf) (PDF). Transactions of TSTU. 26
(1): 118–123.

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