Two-dimensional curved panel vibration and flutter analysis in the frequency and time domain under thermal and in-plane load

The analysis of nonlinear vibrations, buckling, post-buckling, flutter boundary determination and post-flutter behavior of a homogeneous curved plate assuming cylindrical bending is conducted in this article. Other assumptions include simply-supported boundary conditions, supersonic aerodynamic flow at the top of the plate, constant pressure conditions below the plate, non-viscous flow model (using first- and third-order piston theory), nonlinear structural model with large deformations, and application of mechanical and thermal loads on the curved plate. The analysis is performed with constant environmental indicators (flow density, heat, Reynolds number and Mach number). The material properties (i.e., coefficient of thermal expansion and modulus of elasticity) are temperature-dependent. The equations are derived using the principle of virtual displacement. Furthermore, based on the definitions of virtual work, the potential and kinetic energy of the final relations in the integral form, and the governing nonlinear differential equations are obtained after fractional integration. This problem is solved using two approaches. The frequency analysis and flutter are studied in the first approach by transferring the handle of ordinary differential equations to the state space, calculating the system Jacobin matrix and analyzing the eigenvalue to determine the instability conditions. The second approach discusses the nonlinear frequency analysis and nonlinear flutter using the semi-analytical solution of governing differential equations based on the weighted residual method. The partial differential equations are converted to ordinary differential equations, after which they are solved based on the Runge-Kutta fourth- and fifth-order methods. The comparison between the results of frequency and flutter analysis of curved plate is linearly and nonlinearly performed for the first time. The results show that the plate curvature has a profound impact on the instability boundary of the plate under supersonic aerodynamic loading. The flutter boundary decreases with growing thermal load and increases with growing curvature.