Vibration characteristics and supersonic flutter of cylindrical composite panels with large thermoelastic deflections

Vibration characteristics and supersonic flutter of cylindrical laminated panels subjected to thermal loads were investigated by using geometrically nonlinear finite elements based on a layerwise theory. Present nonlinear layerwise theory can describe zig-zag displacements and a thermal field providing a more realistic description of the vibration characteristics and supersonic flutter of cylindrical composite panels. Krumhaar’s supersonic piston theory was applied to model the supersonic aerodynamic loads. The present results show that vibration and aeroelastic characteristics of cylindrical composite panels are very sensitive to structural parameters such as radius, shallowness angles and lamination type. As the radius decreases and the shallowness angles increases, supersonic flutter of the cylindrical composite panels can occur in the very high circumferential modes. Also, the critical aerodynamic pressure of cylindrical composite panels with large thermoelastic deflections can be dramatically reduced due to the reduction of the frequency intervals between two flutter modes.