Abstract: The bifurcation and chaos phenomena of two-dimensional airfoils with multiple strong nonlinearities are investigated. First, the strongly nonlinear square and cubic plunging and pitching stiffness terms are considered in the airfoil motion equations, and the fourth-order Runge-Kutta simulation method is used to obtain the numerical solutions to the equations. Then, a post-processing program is developed to calculate the physical
parameters such as the amplitude and the frequency based on the discrete numerical solutions. With these parameters, the transition of the airfoil motion from balance, period, and period-doubling bifurcations to chaos is emphatically analyzed. Finally, the critical points of the period-doubling bifurcations and chaos are predicted using the Feigenbaum constant and the first two bifurcation critical values. It is shown that the numerical simulation method with post-processing and the prediction procedure are capable of simulating and predicting the bifurcation and chaos of airfoils with multiple strong nonlinearities.

Key words: variable mass, nonholonomic system, form invariance, Lie symmetry, bifurcation, strong nonlinearity, prediction, simulation, airfoil motion, chaos