Accurate analytical solutions to oscillators with discontinuities and fractional-power restoring force by means of the optimal homotopy asymptotic method

Abstract: In this paper a new approach combining the features of the homotopy concept with an efficient computational algorithm which provides a simple and rigorous procedure to control the convergence of the solution is proposed to find accurate analytical explicit solutions for some oscillators with discontinuities and a fractional power restoring force which is proportional to . A very fast convergence to the exact solution was proved, since the second-order approximation lead to very accurate results. Comparisons with numerical results are presented to show the effectiveness of this method. Four numerical applications prove the accuracy of the method, which works very well for the whole range of initial amplitudes. The obtained results prove the validity and efficiency of the method, which can be easily extended to other strongly nonlinear problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]