Nonlinear dynamics and synchronisation of pendula attached to a rotating hub

A model of a nonlinear system composed of a hub with attached two pendula rotating in a horizontal plane is studied in the paper. Each single pendulum, treated as a stiff and massless rod with a lumped mass, is connected to the hub by a flapping hinge. Nonlinear stiffness and viscous damping of the hinge is taken into consideration. The system is excited by an external torque generated by a DC motor which is considered as an ideal system with torque given by a harmonic function. For small oscillations the problem is linearised and then solved analytically. An influence of the structural parameters like mass of the hub and pendula length on natural end excited vibrations is presented. Large oscillations are studied by a continuation technique, directly from the original Ordinary Differential Equations of motion (ODE). The complete synchronisation, phase synchronisation, bifurcations and transition through resonances are analysed considering the influence of the mass of the hub. The existence of chaotic oscillations of the system and paths leading to chaos are demonstrated as well.