In-plane and out-of-plane free vibration and stability of a curved rod in flow

This paper investigates the free vibration and stability of a curved rod in flow. The equations of the three-dimensional motions of the rod are derived by the Newtonian approach. The differential quadrature method (DQM) is introduced to formulate the discrete forms of the governing equations of the inextensible rod with clamped–clamped supports. Based on numerical calculations, the effects of several system parameters, especially the flow velocity, on the natural frequencies and stability of the system are discussed. Buckling and flutter instability are detected as the flow velocity is varied in a certain range. Moreover, a derivation of the generalized slender-body theory for such a deformable curved rod is given in Appendix A.