An approximate technique for determining in closed-form the response transition probability density function of diverse nonlinear/hysteretic oscillators

An approximate analytical technique is developed for determining, in closed form, the transition probability density function (PDF) of a general class of first-order stochastic differential equations (SDEs) with nonlinearities both in the drift and in the diffusion coefficients. Specifically, first, resorting to the Wiener path integral most probable path approximation and utilizing the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality yields a closed-form expression for the system response PDF, at practically zero computational cost. Next, the accuracy of this approximation is enhanced by proposing a more general PDF form with additional parameters to be determined. This is done by relying on the associated Fokke…