Important advances in mathematics, physics, biology, and engineering science have shown the importance of the analysis of instabilities and strongly coupled dynamical behavior. New investigation tools enable us to better understand the dynamical behavior of more complex structures. However, the increasing interest in mechanical structures with extreme performances has propelled the scientific community toward the search for solution of hard problems exhibiting strong nonlinearities. As a consequence, there is an increasing demand both for nonlinear structural components and for advanced multidisciplinary and multiscale mathematical models and methods. In dealing with the phenomena involving a great number of coupled oscillators, the classical linear dynamic methods have to be replaced by new specific mathematical tools.

This special issue aims to assess the current state of nonlinear structural models in vibration analysis, to review and improve the already known methods for analysis of nonlinear and oscillating systems at a macroscopic scale, and to highlight also some of the new techniques which have been applied to complex structures.

We are looking for original high-quality research papers on topics of interest related to specific mathematical models and methods for nonlinear and strongly coupled (correlated) oscillating systems and for distributed-parameter structures that include but are not limited to the following main topics:

• Vibration analysis of distributed-parameter and multibody systems, parametric models
• Global methods, wavelet methods, and fractal analysis for spatially and temporally coupled oscillators
• Nonlinear time series methods for dynamic systems
• Control of nonlinear vibrations and bifurcations, control of chaos in vibrating systems. Transient chaos. Chaotic oscillators. Bifurcations
• Micro- and nanovibrating structural systems

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mpe/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: