Invariant spectral foliations with applications to model order reduction and synthesis

The paper introduces a technique that decomposes the dynamics of a nonlinear system about an equilibrium into low-order components, which then can be used to reconstruct the full dynamics. This is a nonlinear analogue of linear modal analysis. The dynamics is decomposed using Invariant Spectral Foliation (ISF), which is defined as the smoothest invariant foliation about an equilibrium and hence unique under general conditions. The conjugate dynamics of an ISF can be used as a reduced order model. An ISF can be fitted to vibration data without carrying out a model identification first. The theory is illustrated on a analytic example and on free-vibration data of a clamped-clamped beam.