Nonlinear system stochastic response determination via fractional equivalent linearization and Karhunen-Loève expansion

In this paper, a novel fractional equivalent linearization (EL) approach is developed by incorporating a fractional derivative term into the classical linearization equation. Due to the introduction of the fractional derivative term, the accuracy of the new linearization is improved, illustrated by a Duffing oscillator that is subjected to a harmonic excitation. Furthermore, a new method for solving stochastic response of nonlinear SDOF system is developed by combining Karhunen-Loève (K-L) expansion and fractional EL. The method firstly decomposes the stochastic excitation in terms of a set of random variables and deterministic sub-excitations using K-L expansion, and then construct sub-fractional equivalent linear system according to each sub-excitation by fractional EL, the response of the original nonlinear system is finally approximated as the weighed summation of the deterministic response of each sub-system multiplied by the corresponding random variable. The random nature of the final response comes from the set of random variables that is obtained in K-L expansion. In this way, the stochastic response computation is converted to a set of deterministic response analysis problems. The effectiveness of the developed method is demonstrated by a Duffing oscillator that is subjected to stochastic excitation modeled by Winner process. The results are compared with the numerical method and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS).