Role of initial conditions in the dynamics of a double pendulum at low energies

Abstract

We consider the low energy dynamics of the double pendulum. Low energy implies energies close to the critical value required to make the outer pendulum rotate. All the known interesting results for the double pendulum are at high energies, that is, energies higher than that required to make both pendulums rotate. We show that interesting behavior can occur at low energies as well by which we mean energies just sufficient to make the outer pendulum rotate. A harmonic balance and the Lindstedt–Poincare analysis at the low energies establish that at small, but finite amplitude; the two normal modes behave differently. While the frequency of the “in-phase” mode is almost unchanged with increasing amplitude, the frequency of the “out-of-phase” mode drops sharply. Numerical analysis verifies this analytic result and since the perturbation theory indicates a mode softening for the out-of-phase mode at a critical amplitude, we did a careful numerical analysis of the low energy region just above the threshold for onset of rotation for the outlying pendulum. We find chaotic behavior, but the chaos is a strong function of the initial condition.