Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 34 (2007) 337343

www.elsevier.com/locate/chaos

Nonlinear dynamics of a SDOF oscillator

with BoucWen hysteresis q
Hong-guang Li *, Guang Meng
State Key Laboratory of Vibration, Shock and Noise, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Accepted 20 March 2006

Communicated by Prof. Ji-Huan He

Abstract
BoucWen hysteresis model is one of the most widely accepted smoothly varying dierential models in the engineering eld. With dierent parameters of BoucWen model, the vibrating system is nonlinear for its softening or hardening
responses. Frequency responses, bifurcation and chaos of a SDOF oscillator with dierent parameters of BoucWen
model are investigated by means of numerical simulation. The inuence of hysteretic parameters on nonlinear dynamic
responses of vibrating system is studied, some new phenomena are detected.
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Hysteresis is a typical nonlinear phenomenon, and encountered in many scientic elds. For example, engineering
structures often exhibit hysteretic behavior under severe cyclic loads associated with earthquakes, high winds and
waves, some types of nonlinear hysteretic vibration absorbers/isolators such as electro- or magneto-rheological dampers
[1,2] have shown great promise in the eld of vibration reduction due to their inherent hysteretic characteristics.
Over the years, many phenomenological models of hysteresis for mechanical systems have been proposed. Some
early attempts to model hysteretic systems used piecewise linear although, in general, hysteretic behavior is nonlinear
[3,4]. Recently, some types of smoothly hysteresis models are proposed, one of the most widely accepted smoothly varying dierential models is BoucWen hysteresis model [5,6]. BoucWen model has been widely used to describe nonlinear
hysteretic systems including hysteretic isolators, and this nonlinear dierential equation model reects local history
dependence through introducing an extra state variable. Through appropriate choices of parameters in the model, it
can represent a wide variety of softening or hardening smoothly varying or nearly bilinear hysteretic behavior. This
model has also been generalized to include hysteresis pinching and stiness/strength degradation [7].
In general, the restoring force of the hysteretic oscillator can be described, respectively, by bilinear model, Bouc
Wen model, and other hysteretic model. The steady-state dynamics of the hysteretic system have been studied with
approximate analytical techniques and numerical method, few papers concerning the bifurcation and chaos are found
q
*

Paper presented at Elnaschie Nonlinear Dynamics Conference, Shanghai, PR China, 2005.

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hgli@sjtu.edu.cn (H.-g. Li).

0960-0779/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chaos.2006.03.081

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[8,9]. We had investigated the chaotic behaviors of the oscillator with clearance and bilinear hysteresis in our previous
papers [10,11].
In the present research, our primary focus is to study the nonlinear dynamic responses of a SDOF oscillator with
BoucWen hysteresis. We also use frequency responses to show the hardening/softening behaviors of this type oscillator. Moreover, a variety of dynamic responses such as periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic vibrations of the nonlinear
system are detected, some new phenomena are discussed.
2. BoucWen hysteresis model description
The following set of dierential equations governs the motion of a SDOF oscillator with BoucWen hysteresis [6]:
x 21x_x cx2 x 1  cx2 z ut
1
and
z_ A_x  aj_xjzjzjn1  b_xjzjn

Fig. 1. The hysteresis loops generated by BoucWen model. (a) a = 0.5, b = 0.5; (b) a = 1.0, b = 0.0; (c) a = 0.75, b = 0.25; (d)
a = 0.25, b = 0.75; (e) a = 0.85, b = 0.15; (f) a = 0.5, b = 0.5; (g) a = 0.3, b = 0.7; (h) a = 0.7, b = 0.3.

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where x, x_ , x are displacement, velocity and acceleration, respectively, u(t) is external excitation acts on the system, z is
the hysteretic restoring force, c is a ratio of post-yield to pre-yield. A, n, a, b are parameters which regulate the shape of
the hysteresis loop.
BoucWen model has been widely used to describe nonlinear hysteretic systems, this nonlinear dierential equation
model reects local history dependence through introducing an extra state variable. Through appropriate choices of
parameters in the model, it can represent a wide variety of hysteresis loops just shown in Fig. 1. In general, A, a,
and b inuence the loop size, n the smoothness.
BoucWen model can represent a wide variety of softening or hardening restoring force with smoothly hysteresis
loops through appropriate choices of parameters a and b. For example, when a = 0.05 and b = 0.95, the restoring force
is softening, and when a = 0.15 and b = 0.85, the restoring force is hardening obviously. BoucWen model can also
represent the energy absorbed by the hysteretic element. More extensive discussions on the hysteresis exhibited by the
BoucWen model can be found in [57].

3. Numerical results
3.1. Frequency responses
For the purpose of numerical simulation of the hysteretic system, the classical RungeKutta method is employed to
solve the equation of motion (1). Assuming that the external exaction is harmonic, i.e. u(t) = B sin pt, and let n = 1, we
rewrite Eq. (1) into the state equations in terms of state variables as follows:

Fig. 2. Frequency responses of the hysteretic oscillator using Eqs. (3), when A = 1.0 and B = 1.0.

Fig. 3. Frequency responses of the hysteretic oscillator using Eq. (3), when A = 1.0, a = 0.35, b = 0.65.

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8
x_ y
>
>
>
< y_ 21xy  cx2 x  1  cx2 z B sin v
> z_ Ay  ajyjz  byjzj
>
>
:
v_ p

Fig. 4. Frequency responses of the hysteretic oscillator using Eq. (3), when A = 1.0, a = 0.3, b = 0.7.

Fig. 5. Diagrams of bifurcation and the largest Lyapunov exponent of the BoucWen hysteretic oscillator: (a) a bifurcation diagram
and (b) a diagram of the largest Lyapunov exponent.

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341

where f is the damping ratio of the system, f = 0.02; x is the natural frequency of the system without damping and
hysteresis, x = 1.0; B and p are amplitude and frequency of external excitation, respectively; c is a ratio of post-yield
to pre-yield, and let c = 0.5; z is the hysteretic restoring force, A, a and b are parameters which regulate the shape of the
hysteresis loop.
We assume that A = 1.0 and B = 1.0, and study the frequencyresponse relationship of the hysteretic oscillator using
Eqs. (3), the frequency responses show hardening or softening behaviors with corresponding peaks bent to the right or
left, as seen in Fig. 2, where Dmax is the maximum displacement of state responses of the system. We note that softening
hysteresis occurs when (a + b) > 0; and hardening hysteresis also occurs, for example, when a = 0.15 and b = 0.85.
The frequency responses of hardening or softening hysteresis can be seen in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively.
3.2. Bifurcation and chaos
A bifurcation diagram for the range of excitation amplitude 0.0 < B < 120.0 is shown in Fig. 5(a), for damping ratio
f = 0.02, frequency of external excitation p = 1.0, a = 0.15 and b = 0.85. The initial conditions are xjt0 x_ jt0 0.
Fig. 5(b) is corresponding diagram of the largest Lyapunov exponents. Here, we distinguish dierent motions by denoting the motion with q forcing periods of p/p as Pq. As seen from Fig. 5, a P1 motion exists for B < 15. When B is
increased, the P1 motion undergoes a bifurcation and becomes a P2 motion, and then a P1 motion. The motion of system undergoes P1 ! P2 ! P4 ! chaos for the range of 35.2 < B < 36.8. An enlargement of Fig. 5(a) in the range
83.0 < B < 84.0 is shown. Here, the bifurcation diagram starts with a P1 motion, a route of P1 ! P2 ! P4 ! P8 !
P4 ! P8 ! P4 ! chaos ! P4 ! P2 ! chaos ! P4 ! chaos is clearly seen.

Fig. 6. Bifurcation diagrams of the BoucWen hysteretic oscillator with dierent parameters. A bifurcation diagram at (a) a = 0.05
and b = 0.95 and (b) a = 0.3 and b = 0.7.

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In this paper, attention is restricted on hardening hysteresis which, on account of Eq. (3), occurs when (a + b) > 0.
The eect of the hysteretic parameters (a and b) on the system bifurcations is shown in Fig. 6, and chaotic responses of
the BoucWen hysteretic oscillators in the planes dened by the amplitude of external excitation and the hysteretic
parameter b is shown in Fig. 7, where another hysteretic parameter a is dened by a = 1  jbj.
As we know, a bifurcation diagram provides a global picture of dierent types of motions that exist in association
with the variation of parameters. Fig. 8 shows the bifurcation diagram for the range of hysteretic parameter
1.0 < b < 0.8. With forward tracking (in black), a P1 motion exists at rst. When jbj is increased, the P1 motion undergoes a bifurcation and becomes chaos motion, and then P1 motion. To show complexity of behaviors, we tune the
parameter b backward from b = 1.0 to 0.8 (in blue), it was found that the P1 motion of the hysteretic oscillator
jumps to chaotic motion at b = 0.911. It is interesting to note that P1 motion and chaotic motion coexist for the range
of hysteretic parameter 0.943 < b < 0.911. The basin of attraction for the initial condition of the BoucWen hysteretic oscillator at a = 0.07 and b = 0.93 is shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 7. Black regions depict the domains where chaotic behavior of the BoucWen hysteretic oscillator is possible in the Bb plane,
where a = 1  jbj.

Fig. 8. Global bifurcation of the response amplitude x against the variation of b, with forward tracking (in black) and backward
tracking (in blue). (For interpretation of the references in color in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this
article.)

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Fig. 9. The basin of attraction for the initial condition of the BoucWen hysteretic oscillator at a = 0.07 and b = 0.93, the basin of
chaotic motion is marked in black, the basin of P1 motion is colored in white.

4. Conclusion
In this paper, we studied the nonlinear dynamics of a SDOF oscillator with BoucWen hysteresis. Frequency
responses reveal that the BoucWen hysteretic oscillators at dierent hysteretic parameters show the hardening or softening behavior. Using the previously developed methodology, we also examined the bifurcations under changes of certain system parameters. The bifurcations, chaos and basin of attraction are identied using direct numerical simulation.
Domains where chaotic behavior of the oscillators with hysteresis is possible are found in planes dened by the amplitude of external excitation and the hysteretic parameter. We also note that P1 motion and chaotic motion coexist in
some parameter regimes.
In general, the responses of BoucWen hysteretic oscillator are periodic of period one. However, the present study
shows that chaotic behavior of the oscillators is possible. The present research may be extended to deal with some nonlinear problems with other hysteretic models.

Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (Grant Nos. 10502032, 50335030).

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