Flexural-Torsional Flutter and Buckling of Braced Foil Beams under a Follower Force

The flutter and buckling behavior of a cantilever foil beam, loaded at the tip by a follower force, are addressed in this paper. The beam is internally and externally damped and braced at the tip by a linear spring-damper device, which is located in an eccentric position with respect to beam axis, thus coupling the flexural and torsional behaviors. An exact linear stability analysis is carried out, and the linear stability diagram of the trivial rectilinear configuration is built up in the space of the follower load and spring's stiffness parameters. The effects of the flexural-torsional coupling, as well as of the damping, on the flutter and buckling critical loads are discussed.