Comparisons between harmonic balance and nonlinear output frequency response function in nonlinear system analysis

By using the Duffing oscillator as a case study, this paper shows that the harmonic components in the nonlinear system response to a sinusoidal input calculated using the nonlinear output frequency response functions (NOFRFs) are one of the solutions obtained using the harmonic balance method (HBM). A comparison of the performances of the two methods shows that the HBM can capture the well-known jump phenomenon, but is restricted by computational limits for some strongly nonlinear systems and can fail to provide accurate predictions for some harmonic components. Although the NOFRFs cannot capture the jump phenomenon, the method has few computational restrictions. For the nonlinear damping systems, the NOFRFs can give better predictions for all the harmonic components in the system response than the HBM even when the damping system is strongly nonlinear.