Hopf and double Hopf bifurcations in a delayed lateral vibration model of footbridges induced by pedestrians

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the dynamical behaviors of a delayed lateral vibration model of footbridges proposed based on the facts that pedestrians will reduce their walking speed or stop walking when the response of the footbridge becomes sufficiently large, and that the bridge velocity can not be changed at once when the pedestrians begin to walk on the bridge. By analyzing the distribution of roots of the associated characteristic equation, we find that there are only two types of bifurcations in this model: Hopf bifurcation and double Hopf bifurcation, and give the condition on the stability of the trivial solution. By using the center manifold theorem and bifurcation theory of delayed differential equations, we obtain the dynamical behavior in these bifurcations, specially including the stability of periodic solutions and invariant tori bifurcating from the trivial solution in these bifurcations. Finally, we prove that this model exhibits quasi-periodic vibrations by KAM theorems, besides periodic vibrations.