Buckling, Vibration, and Flutter Behavior of Laminated Composite Panels with Flaws Subjected to Nonuniform Follower Forces

Abstract

The present work uses a finite-element approach to study vibration, buckling, and dynamic instability characteristics in damaged cross-ply and angle-ply curved panels. The panels are subjected to nonuniform, centrally, and edge-distributed follower loading. First order shear-deformation theory was used to model the doubly curved panels and was formulated in accordance with Sanders’ first approximation. An anisotropic damage formulation was used to model damage. An analysis was carried out on plate and shallow shells to obtain vibration, buckling, and static instability (i.e., divergence) and dynamic instability (i.e., flutter) behavior. The effects of load type, load width, damage, and damage location on natural frequency, buckling load, divergence load, flutter load and flutter frequency were studied. The effect of curvature to improve the stability characteristics of panels is discussed. The desirable position of damage on a panel is discussed on the basis of different stability behavior. Results indicate that narrow edge loading is undesirable in most cases.