Liapunov Stability Criteria for Continuous Systems Under Parametric Excitation

Abstract

A Liapunov direct method is developed here to derive stability criteria for continuous systems under parametric excitation. The method makes use of time-dependent Liapunov functionals and the extremal properties of Rayleigh quotients of self-adjoint operators. The application of the method entails solving an eigenvalue problem with the variable t appearing in the problem strictly as a parameter. As examples of application the method is applied to (a) a clamped column under the action of periodic axial load, and (b) the panel flutter problem with the panel also subjected to periodic in-plane load. The calculated results for the first example show improvement over those obtained previously.