Using delay to quench undesirable vibrations (Q619573)

A van der Pol type system with delayed feedback is explored by employing the two variable expansion perturbation method. The system reads \[ \ddot{x}+x-\varepsilon y\dot x+\varepsilon \alpha x^2\dot x= \beta\dot x(t-T)+\delta x(t-T).\tag{1} \] The notions of delay amplitude and delay lag are introduced. The delay amplitudes associated with each of the terms on the right hand side of (1) are \(\beta\) for the velocity feedback and \(\delta\) for the position feedback. The delay lag is \(T\) for both terms. The perturbation scheme is based on choosing a critical value for the delay corresponding to a Hopf bifurcation in the unperturbed system (the system obtained for \(\varepsilon=0\)). The resulting amplitude-delay relation predicts two Hopf bifurcation curves, such that in the region between these two curves oscillations will be quenched. The perturbation results are verified by comparison with numerical integration.