An equivalent linearization method for nonlinear systems under nonstationary random excitations using orthogonal functions

Many practical engineering problems are associated with nonlinear systems subjected to nonstationary random excitations. Equivalent linearization methods are commonly used to seek for approximate solutions to this kind of problems. Compared to various approaches developed in the frequency and mixed time-frequency domains, though directly solving the system equation of motion in the time domain would improve computation efficiency, only limited studies are available. Considering the fact that the orthogonal functions have been widely used to effectively improve the accuracy of the approximated responses and reduce the computational cost in various engineering applications, an orthogonal-function-based equivalent linearization method in the time domain has been proposed in the current paper for nonlinear systems subjected to nonstationary random excitations. In the numerical examples, the proposed approach is applied to a SDOF system with a set-up spring and a SDOF Duffing oscillator subjected to stationary and nonstationary excitations. In addition, its applicability to nonlinear MDOF systems is examined by a 3DOF Duffing system subjected to nonstationary excitation. Results show that the proposed method can accurately predict the nonlinear system response and the formulation of the proposed approach allows it to be capable of handling any general type of nonstationary random excitations, such as the seismic load.