HIGHLIGHTS A weakly dissipative nonlinear chain driven by harmonic forcing with a slowlyvarying frequency chain demonstrates autoresonance in a bounded time interval. The emergence and the duration of autoresonance depend on the interplay between the structural and excitation parameters. Autoresonant energy localization with energy equipartition between the autoresonant oscillators in the entire chain or in a part of the chain is observed.
AbstractIn this work, we develop an analytical framework to explain the influence of dissipation and detuning parameters on the emergence and stability of autoresonance in a strongly nonlinear weakly damped chain subjected to harmonic forcing with a slowly-varying frequency. Using the asymptotic procedures, we construct the evolutionary equations, which describe the behavior of the array under the condition of 1:1 resonance and then approximately compute the slow amplitudes and phases as well as the duration of autoresonance. It is shown that, in contrast to autoresonance in a nondissipative chain with unbounded growth of energy, the energy in a weakly damped array being initially at rest is growing only in a bounded time interval up to an instant of simultaneous escape from resonance of all autoresonant oscillators. Analytical conditions of the emergence and stability of autoresonance are confirmed by numerical simulations.