On limit cycle approximations in the van der Pol oscillator

Abstract

This paper applies bifurcation analysis to the well-known van der Pol oscillator to obtain approximations of its periodic solutions in the nearly sinusoidal regime. A frequency domain method based on harmonic balance approximations is used for small values of the bifurcation parameter. Moreover, a comparison with some other frequency domain approaches is also given. Finally, a total harmonic distortion is computed using the information provided by the frequency domain approach.