On the boundaries of the parametric resonance domain

Abstract The problem of stability for a system of linear differential equations with coefficients which are periodic in time and depend on the parameters is considered. The singularities of the general position arising at the boundaries of the stability and instability (parametric resonance) domains in the case of two and three parameters are listed. A constructive approach is proposed which enables one, in the first approximation, to determine the stability domain in the neighbourhood of a point of the boundary (regular or singular) from the information at this point. This approach enables one to eliminate a tedious numerical analysis of the stability region in the neighbourhood of the boundary point and can be employed to construct the boundaries of parametric resonance domains. As an example, the problem of the stability of the oscillations of an articulated pipe conveying fluid with a pulsating velocity is considered. In the space of three parameters (the average fluid velocity and the amplitude and frequency of pulsations) a singularity of the boundary of the stability domain of the “dihedral angle” type is obtained and the tangential cone to the stability domain is calculated.