Flutter of multi-cracked laminated composite beams subjected to a non-conservative compressive load

Abstract

Free vibration and buckling instability of laminated composite beams and flutter instability of an isotropic beam with different defects have been investigated before, however, still dynamic stability of laminated composite beam with weak section subjected to follower forces has not considered. This paper presents a simple semi-analytical solution to the flutter instability of a laminated composite beam with multi open-edge cracks subjected to a tip follower force. Using classical lamination theory and Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, equation of motion of the beam is derived analytically and characteristic eigenvalue equations of the cracked laminated composite beam are obtained. A Matlab® code is used to solve these equations numerically. After validating the results, a numerical study is performed to investigate the effect of crack depth and stacking sequences on the dynamic stability of the cracked beam.