Parametric stability of a charged pendulum with oscillating suspension point (Q2661227)

The mathematical planar pendulum is one of the most studied mechanical problem. Its variant, when the point of suspension is not fixed, has received some attention. In this paper, the authors have considered the case where the point of suspension not only is oscillating vertically but also the bob of the pendulum has an electric charge q and moves above a horizontal wire with a uniform distribution of charge. The parametric stability of an oscillating charged pendulum in two cases have been analysed. The case of the lower equilibrium for values of the charge $q < 1$ and the case of the upper equilibrium for the values of the charge $q > 3$. A small parameter $e$ is introduced as the ratio between the amplitude of oscillation of the point of suspension and the length of the pendulum. When $e = 0$ this is the case of the charged pendulum with a fixed suspension point. Another parameter considered is defined as $\alpha$ related to the length of the pendulum and the frequency of oscillation of the suspension point. In particular, when the charge is zero, the boundary curves for the Mathieu equation are obtained. It is shown that the stable equilibrium for the usual pendulum, $q = 0$, becomes unstable when the positive charge is bigger than $1$ while the unstable equilibrium becomes stable when the positive charge is bigger than $3$.