Flutter of a panel supported on an elastic foundation

The flutter behavior of a thin panel resting on a linear elastic foundation is studied, using an analogy with the flutter of a panel of the same geometry without spring support. With quasi-steady aerodynamic loading, it is observed that there is a change not only in the flutter frequency, but also in the total damping of the system, due to the elastic foundation. Furthermore, it is found that for small values of aerodynamic damping and spring stiffness, the quasi-static approach is reasonable, whereas for high values of aerodynamic damping or of spring stiffness, quasi-static theory is inadequate. For high values of spring stiffness, the flutter mode of the panel exhibits traveling wave motion