Separatrices and Limit Cycles of Strongly Nonlinear Oscillators by the Perturbation-Incremental Method

The perturbation-incremental method is applied to determine the separatrices and limit cycles of strongly nonlinear oscillators. Conditions are derived under which a limit cycle is created or destroyed. The latter case may give rise to a homoclinic orbit or a pair of heteroclinic orbits. The limit cycles and the separatrices can be calculated to any desired degree of accuracy. Stability and bifurcations of limit cycles will also be discussed.