Supersonic Flutter of Functionally Graded Plates in a Thermal Environment

In this paper, an analytical investigation intended to determine the flutter margin of supersonic functionally graded panels is carried out. For this purpose, piston theory aerodynamics has been employed to model quasi-steady aerodynamic loading. The material properties of the plate are assumed to be graded continuously across the panel thickness. The variation of temperature-dependent thermoelastic properties follows a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fraction of the constituent materials. The effects of compressive in-plane loads and static pressure differential are studied. Both uniform and through the thickness nonlinear temperature distributions are also considered. Hamilton’s principle is used to determine the coupled partial differential equations of motion. Using Galerkin’s method, the derived equations are transformed into a set of coupled ordinary differential equations, and then solved by numerical time integration. Some examples comparing the flutter margin of FG panels with that of plates made of pure metals and pure ceramics are presented. The results of the present study are compared with those of the previous works, where finite element method was used. It is shown that the use of functionally graded materials can yield an increase or decrease of the aeroelastic stability in the supersonic flow for different regions.