Control of a nonlinear system using the saturation phenomenon (Q2499501)

The saturation phenomenon can be observed in forced vibrations of coupled two-degree-of-freedom systems with quadratic nonlinearities when two natural frequencies of the system are in the ratio of around 2:1, and the system is excited at a frequency close to its higher natural frequency. By increasing the amplitude of the forcing term beyond a critical value, the amplitude of the higher frequency mode remains constant, and the excess energy pumped to the system is transferred to the low-frequency mode. The energy bridge created by nonlinear terms can be used to limit the response of the plant by transferring the excess energy to the controller. In the paper, this phenomenon is theoretically investigated for a plant consisting of a permanent magnet direct coupling motor and a second-order nonlinear controller with a quadratic control law. The analytical approximate solutions of the first and second order are obtained using the method of multiple time scales. Stability of steady-state solutions is studied by Routh criterion applied to characteristic polynomials. The theoretical results are compared with numerical ones.