Nonlinear Normal Modes of a Cantilever Beam

Two approaches for determination of the nonlinear planar modes of a cantilever beam are compared. In the first approach, the governing partial-differential system is discretized using the linear mode shapes and then the nonlinear mode shapes are determined from the discretized system. In the second approach, the boundary-value problem is treated directly by using the method of multiple scales. The results show that both approaches yield the same nonlinear modes because the discretization is performed using a complete set of basis functions, namely, the linear mode shapes.