  We perform a detailed study of the dynamics of a nonlinear, one-dimensional
oscillator driven by a periodic force under hysteretic damping, whose linear
version was originally proposed and analyzed by Bishop in [1]. We first add a
small quadratic stiffness term in the constitutive equation and construct the
periodic solution of the problem by a systematic perturbation method,
neglecting transient terms as $t\rightarrow \infty$. We then repeat the
analysis replacing the quadratic by a cubic term, which does not allow the
solutions to escape to infinity. In both cases, we examine the dependence of
the amplitude of the periodic solution on the different parameters of the model
and discuss the differences with the linear model. We point out certain
undesirable features of the solutions, which have also been alluded to in the
literature for the linear Bishop's model, but persist in the nonlinear case as
well. Finally, we discuss an alternative hysteretic damping oscillator model
first proposed by Reid [2], which appears to be free from these difficulties
and exhibits remarkably rich dynamical properties when extended in the
nonlinear regime.
