A harmonic balance normal form parametrisation for single mode reduction of nonlinear vibrating systems

This paper introduces a model-order reduction technique for lightly damped nonlinear vibrating systems. By combining calculation details that are specific to the harmonic balance method, the asymptotic numerical method, and the normal form style parametrisation for invariant manifolds, a complete procedure that can cope with single-mode reduction is detailed. Introducing harmonic decomposition in the process allows for a different treatment of the temporal information of the solution, which comes with advantages as compared to normal form expansions based on polynomial expansions. The computation proceeds with two nested loops on both the harmonics and the polynomial degree expansion. A decisive advantage of the procedure is its ability to compute a new expansion from a known solution, which allows the derivation of amplitude-dependent piecewise reduced order models (ROMs), together with an integrated procedure that can switch from the invariant manifolds computation attached to either fixed points or limit cycles. Once the validity limit of a first expansion is met, the procedure can restart from a point where convergence is reached and produce a new ROM. This feature has the potential to overcome the well-known limitations of asymptotic expansions associated with the parametrisation method for invariant manifolds, and is derived here only for conservative systems. The whole analysis also clearly establishes the links existing between the normal form approach and computations based on the harmonic balance combined with the asymptotic numerical method. Examples of increasing complexity, starting from a Duffing equation, a two-degree-of-freedom system and a finite element beam model, are analysed, and comparisons with existing techniques are provided.