An analytic approximate approach for free oscillations of self-excited systems

A new analytic approximate technique for non-linear problems, namely the homotopy analysis method, is employed to propose an approach for free oscillations of self-excited systems. Different from perturbation methods on this topic, this approach does not depend upon any small/large parameters at all and therefore is valid for free oscillations of all self-excited systems. Besides, unlike other analytic techniques, this approach provides us with a convenient way to control the convergence of approximation series and adjust convergence regions when necessary. Two examples are employed to illustrate the validity and flexibility of this approach. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.