Flutter phenomenon in composite sandwich beams with flexible core under follower force

The main purpose of the present work was to study the dynamic instability of a three-layered, thick composite sandwich beam with the functionally graded (FG) flexible core subjected to an axial compressive follower force. Flutter instability of a sandwich cantilever beam was analyzed using the high-order theory of sandwich beams, for the first time. The governing equations in general for sandwich beams with an FG core were extracted and could be used for all types of sandwich beams with any types of face sheets and cores. A polynomial function is considered for the vertical distribution of the displacement field in the core layer along the thickness, based on the results of the first Frosting's higher order model. The governing partial differential equations and the equations of boundary conditions of the dynamic system are derived using Hamilton's principle. By applying the boundary conditions and numerical solution methods of squares quadrature, the beam flutter phenomenon is studied. In addition, the effects of different geometrical and material parameters on the flutter threshold were investigated. The results showed that the responses of the dynamic instability of the system were influenced by the follower force, the coefficients of FGs and the geometrical parameters like the core thickness. Comparison of the present results with the published results in the literature for the special case confirmed the accuracy of the proposed theory. The results showed that the follower force of the flutter phenomenon threshold for long beams tends to the corresponding results in the Timoshenko beam.