An investigation of aero-thermo-elastic flutter and divergence of functionally graded porous skew plates

Abstract

Aero-thermo-elastic flutter and divergence analyses of functionally graded (FG) porous skew plates subjected to supersonic airflow are investigated in this study. The material properties of skew plates vary across the thickness based on the modified power-law model. Three types of thermal loading as constant, linear and nonlinear temperature distributions in the thickness direction of the plate are considered. Applying the Hamilton’s principle, the coupled partial differential equations of motion and the associated boundary conditions based on the first-order shear deformation theory and linear piston theory are derived in the Cartesian coordinates. Also, the principle of minimum total potential energy and adjacent equilibrium criterion are used to obtain the stability equations. Using a mapping, the partial differential equations of motion and stability equations are converted from Cartesian coordinate system to a skew coordinate. The partial differential equations in the skew coordinate are discretized by generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) and solved using the state space method. Consequently, the effects of geometrical, mechanical and thermal parameters such as thermal loading types, angle of skew, power-law index, porosity, and boundary conditions on the flutter and divergence boundaries of skew plate are studied in detail.