Analysis

of Parametric Resonance

Xueyin Wen xwen@mit.edu

Parametric resonance is a property of an open oscillating system in which the amplitude of oscillation increases exponentially with time, as a result of the parameters of the system varying in time. For this project, I attempted to solve the second order differential equation of such a system: 2 + w 2 (t)x = + w0 (1+ h cos( t))x = 0 (1) x x In this case, the angular frequency varies about w0 with a period of 2 / , since w(t) regains the value of w0 every / units in time, when t reaches the value of / 2 or 3 / 2 . In lecture, we learned that the two general solutions to this t/T differential equation are in the form x1 (t) = 1t/T 1 (t) and x2 (t) = 2 2 (t) where 1 and 2 are functions with period T = 2 / . Both these equations satisfy the condition x(t + T ) = x(t) , and if 1 and 2 are real numbers, they must be inverses of each other; that is, 1 = 1 / 2 . Then, the solutions of the differential equation will be in the form x1 = t/T 1 (t) and x2 = t/T 2 (t) , where one of the two solutions has a component that increases exponentially with time, depending on whether the value of is positive or negative. Returning to (1), it is possible to use the conclusions above to guess the form of the solution to the differential equation + w 2 (1+ h cos( t))x = 0 . According to x 0 Landau, parametric resonance occurs most strongly when is about twice the value of w0 ; thus, we can rewrite the equation as + w 2 (1+ h cos((2w0 + )t))x = 0 where is x 0 very small compared to w0 . Looking at x1 = t/T 1 (t) and x2 = t/T 2 (t) , we know that the solution x(t) should have a periodic component as well as an exponential component. Thus, we can write x(t) in the form: 1 1 (2) x(t) = a(t)cos(w0 + )t + b(t)sin(w0 + )t 2 2 where a(t) and b(t) are exponential functions that can be written as ce st , where c and s are constants. This resembles the form x(t) = t/T (t) since it is possible to factor out the exponential components of a(t) and b(t) from (2) (so analogously, t/T = e st , which means = e sT = e s /w0 where (2 ) / (2w0 ) is T) and combine the cosine and sine terms into one sinusoidal expression. It should be noted that the period of the sinusoidal component here is twice the period of w(t), whereas in the general solution of the form x(t) = t/T (t) , (t) has the same period T as h cos( t) . This difference should not matter, as the conclusion 1 2 = 1 can still be reached using the method discussed in lecture (the method in lecture depended on the fact that x1 x2 x1 x2 = constant. By shifting time from t to t+T, x1 x2 x1 x2 would be multiplied by 1 2 , which must equal 1 for the constant to remain unchanged. For (2), if we shift time from t to t+T, the sine and cosine in (2) would change signs; hence, as mentioned before, t/T = e st , so that x(t + T ) = x(t) . However, x1 x2 x1 x2 would still be multiplied by (1 )( 2 ) = 1 2 , so 1 2 = 1 still holds.) The next step to solving the differential equation is plugging (2) into (1). 1 1 1 1 Using the identity cos(2w0 + )t cos(w0 + )t = (cos3(w0 + )t + cos(w0 + )t) , we 2 2 2 2

can further simplify the equation. Taking only the first order terms with respect to h and (assuming that the second derivative of a(t) and b(t), as well as the frequency 1 3(w0 + ) , are of a higher order, and thus eliminating terms containing them), we 2 obtain the function: 1 1 1 1 (3) (2 a + b + hw0 b)w0 sin(w0 + )t + (2 b a + hw0 a)w0 cos(w0 + )t = 0 2 2 2 2 For the equation to hold, the coefficients of sine and cosine must be 0; in 1 1 other words, we can set 2 a + b + hw0 b = 0 and 2 b a + hw0 a = 0 and solve for a 2 2 and b, taking the derivative of a(t) and b(t) to be sa(t) and sb(t), respectively. Factoring out b and a in the two equations and multiplying them together, we find 1 1 s= [( hw0 )2 2 ] , meaning that for s to be real (and thus, for parametric 4 2 resonance to occur), is bounded so that its absolute value cannot be greater than the absolute value of hw0 / 2 . Plugging the value of s back in for a(t) = c1e st and b(t) =

c2 e st , we can find the solution to (1). The sign indicates that there are two s values and thus two solutions, one of which has an exponential component that increases with time. Next I tried to analyze the properties of the second order solution to (1). While solving for the solution is very tedious, if we just wanted to find the boundaries for which parametric resonance occurs, it is all right to assume that a(t) and b(t) are constants with respect to time, since at the limits of the range of , when its absolute value is the same as the absolute value of hw0 / 2 , the s=0. In this case, a(t) and b(t) do not vary with time. As seen from the process of solving for the first order solution to (1), there are actually higher order terms of sine and cosine 1 with the angular frequency 3(w0 + ) in the solution. Thus, it is possible to write 2 the solution x(t) as:
Plugging (4) into (1) and combining sine and cosine terms similar to what was done in (3) (eliminating higher order terms of sine and cosine with the angular frequency 1 5(w0 + ) , as well as setting the coefficients of sine and cosine to 0), we can solve 2 for the values of a, b, and at the limits of . We get = hw0 / 2 h 2 w0 / 32 . Figure 1: typical plot of first order solution x(t) exhibiting parametric resonance; amplitude increases exponentially with time Sources: Landau
1 1 1 1 x(t) = a0 (t)cos(w0 + )t + b0 (t)sin(w0 + )t + a1 (t)cos3(w0 + )t + b1 (t)sin 3(w0 + )t (4) 2 2 2 2

 Source: Landau Source: Landau Source: Landau by transforming the time from t to t+2T, allowing the periodic component of x(t) to remain unchanged and resulting in x1 (t + 2T ) = 1 x(t) and x2 (t + 2T ) = 2 x(t) . As seen from the process of solving for the first order solution to equation (1), there are actually higher order terms of sine and cosine with the angular frequency 1 3(w0 + ) in the solution. Thus, it is possible to write the solution x(t) as: 2 1 1 1 1 x(t) = a0 (t)cos(w0 + )t + b0 (t)sin(w0 + )t + a1 (t)cos3(w0 + )t + b1 (t)sin 3(w0 + )t 2 2 2 2 (5) Using the same method as was used in solving the first order differential equation, in which we neglect the higher order terms of sine and cosine with

1 frequency 5(w0 + ) , we get an equation similar to (4) in which the coefficients of 2 the sine and cosine must be 0. Solving the system The differential equation stays the same when the time is transformed from t to t + T , where T is the period of w(t) . Thus, if x(t) is a solution of the differential equation, then x(t + T ) must be a solution as well. With this fact, the fact that every second order differential equation has two linearly independent solutions, and the fact that there will always be a solution x(t) where x(t + T ) = x(t) and is a constant, we can write the two solutions to this differential equation in the form Plugging in x1 (t) and x2 (t) separately into the left side of differential equation (1), multiplying the equations by x2 and x1 respectively, and subtracting the resulting equations from each other, we get: x2 1 + w2 (t)x1 x2 (x1 2 + w2 (t)x2 x1 ) = 0 (2) x x Simplifying, we find that the time derivative of x1 x2 x1 x2 is 0, meaning that value of x1 x2 x1 x2 is a constant. If we transform time from t to t + T , then the expression x1 x2 x1 x2 is multiplied by 1 2 . However, the value of the expression must not change, so 1 2 = 1 .

 A simple example is a pendulum with one end attached to a mass and the other end threaded through a hole and then attached to a rotating wheel (see figure 1); in this situation, rotation of the wheel changes the length of the pendulum (it varies periodically about an average length). When the wheel rotates at an angular frequency near twice the natural angular frequency w 0 = g/l0 of the system, parametric resonance occurs and amplitude of small oscillations increases exponentially with time (Jenkins 2012).