The Dynamics of Large Systems of Globally Coupled, Mistuned Electromechanical Resonators

While the study of coupled resonant systems is a topic of significant research interest, comparatively little work has been done to study the dynamics of coupled electromechanical systems with many degrees of freedom containing features such as element-level mistuning. In this work we consider the dynamics of a system consisting of a large (N = 16) array of globally coupled, mistuned electromechanical resonators. An analytical and experimental framework is developed to enable the study of emergent behaviors in this system. A number of behaviors are identified, such as the appearance of additional resonance frequencies that are common to all of the resonators in the array. These behaviors are seen in both the analytical model and physical system and are dependent on the global properties of the system, such as the distribution of the parameters of the resonators and the strength of the coupling between the array’s constituent elements.