In this paper, a method for pattern analysis in networks of diffusively coupled nonlinear systems of Lur'e form is presented. We consider a class of nonlinear systems which are globally asymptotically stable in isolation. Interconnecting such systems into a network via diffusive coupling can result in persistent oscillatory behavior, which may lead to pattern formation in the coupled systems. Some of these patterns may coexist and can even all be locally stable, i.e. the network dynamics can be multistable. Multistability makes the application of common analysis methods, such as the direct Lyapunov method, highly involved. We develop a numerically efficient method in order to analyze the oscillatory behavior occurring in such networks. We focus on networks of Lur'e systems in which the oscillations appear via a Hopf bifurcation with the (diffusively) coupling strength as a bifurcation parameter and therefore display sinusoidal-like behavior in the neighborhood of the bifurcation point. Using the describing function method, we replace nonlinearities with their linear approximations. Then we analyze the system of linear equations by means of the multivariable harmonic balance method. We show that the multivariable harmonic balance method is able to accurately predict patterns that appear in such a network, even if multiple patterns coexist.@en

In this paper, we present a method aiming at pattern prediction in networks of diffusively coupled nonlinear systems. Interconnecting several globally asymptotical stable systems into a network via diffusion can result in diffusion-driven instability phenomena, which may lead to pattern formation in coupled systems. Some of the patterns may co-exist which implies the multi-stability of the network. Multi-stability makes the application of common analysis methods, such as the direct Lyapunov method, highly involved. We develop a numerically efficient method in order to analyze the oscillatory behavior occurring in such networks. We show that the oscillations appear via a Hopf bifurcation and therefore display sinusoidal-like behavior in the neighborhood of the bifurcation point. This allows to use the describing function method in order to replace a nonlinearity by its linear approximation and then to analyze the system of linear equations by means of the multivariable harmonic balance method. The method cannot be directly applied to a network consisting of systems of any structure and here we present the multivariable harmonic balance method for networks with a general system's structure and dynamics.@en

This work addresses the problem of pattern analysis in networks consisting of delay-coupled identical Lur'e systems. We study a class of nonlinear systems, which, being isolated, are globally asymptotically stable. Assembling such systems into a network via time-delayed coupling may result in the change of network equilibrium stability under parameter variation in the coupling. In this work, we focus on cases where a Hopf bifurcation causes the change of stability of the network equilibrium and leads to the occurrence of oscillatory modes (patterns). Moreover, some of these patterns can co-exist for the same set of coupling parameters, which makes the analysis by means of common methods, such as the Lyapunov-Krasovskii method or the analysis of Poincaré maps, cumbersome. A numerically efficient algorithm, aiming at the computation of the oscillatory patterns occurring in such networks, is presented. Moreover, we show that our approach is able to deal with co-existing patterns, and both stable and unstable regimes can be simultaneously computed, which gives deep insight into the network dynamics. In order to illustrate the efficiency of the method, we present two examples in which the instability of the network equilibria is caused by a subcritical and a supercritical Hopf bifurcation. In addition, a bifurcation analysis of the subcritical case is performed in order to further explain the occurrence of the detected coexisting modes. @en