Flutter of rectangular simply supported plates at low supersonic speeds

While the linear panel flutter boundaries in the two-dimensional formulation have been studied in detail, there are only few investigations of the boundaries in the three-dimensional case. Since the linear growth mechanism plays an essential role in nonlinear oscillations, its comprehensive study is an important step toward understanding of complex dynamics of skin panels in the three-dimensional case. In this paper, we investigate the flutter boundaries of rectangular panels simply supported at all edges, and use potential flow theory to calculate the unsteady pressure. The problem is considered in two formulations: a series of rectangular plates, attached to each other, and a single rectangular plate. Flutter boundaries of the first four modes are calculated, and their transformations with the change of the spanwise plate width are studied in detail.