Abstract: The steady-state transverse vibration of an axially moving string with geometric nonlinearity was investigated. The transport speed was assumed to be a constant mean speed with small harmonic variations. The nonlinear partial-differential equation that governs the transverse vibration of the string was derived by use of the Hamilton principle. The method of multiple scales was applied directly to the equation. The solvability condition of eliminating the secular terms was established. Closed form solutions for the amplitude and the existence conditions of nontrivial steady-state response of the two-to-one parametric resonance were obtained. Some numerical examples showing effects of the mean transport speed, the amplitude and the frequency of speed variation were presented. The Liapunov linearized stability theory was employed to derive the instability conditions of the trivial solution and the nontrivial solutions for the two-to-one parametric resonance. Some numerical examples highlighting influences of the related parameters on the instability conditions were presented.

Key words: axially moving string, transverse vibration, geometric nonlinearity, method of multiple scale, steady-state response