Stochastic Stability of Coupled Viscoelastic Systems Excited by Real Noise

The moment stochastic stability and almost-sure stochastic stability of two-degree-of-freedom coupled viscoelastic systems, under the parametric excitation of a real noise, are investigated through the moment Lyapunov exponents and the largest Lyapunov exponent, respectively. The real noise is also called the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck stochastic process. For small damping and weak random fluctuation, the moment Lyapunov exponents are determined approximately by using the method of stochastic averaging and a formulated eigenvalue problem. The largest Lyapunov exponent is calculated through its relation with moment Lyapunov exponents. The stability index, the stability boundaries, and the critical excitation are obtained analytically. The effects of various parameters on the stochastic stability of the system are then discussed in detail. Monte Carlo simulation is carried out to verify the approximate results of moment Lyapunov exponents. As an application example, the stochastic stability of a flexural-torsional viscoelastic beam is studied