Lindstedt series for periodic solutions of beam equations with quadratic and velocity dependent nonlinearities

Abstract

We prove the existence of small amplitude periodic solutions, for a large Lebesgue measure set of frequencies, in the nonlinear beam equation with a weak quadratic and velocity dependent nonlinearity and with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Such nonlinear PDE can be regarded as a simple model describing oscillations of flexible structures like suspension bridges in presence of an uniform wind flow. The periodic solutions are explicitly constructed by means of a perturbative expansion which can be considered the analogue of the Lindstedt series expansion for the invariant tori in classical mechanics. The periodic solutions are not analytic but defined only in a Cantor set, and resummation techniques of divergent powers series are used in order to control the small divisors problem.