Effects of Thermo-Mechanical Loads on Aeroelastic Instabilities of Metallic and Composite Panels

Panel flutter phenomena can be strongly affected by thermal loads,and so a refined aeroelastic model is presented.Higher-order shell theories are used as structural models.The aerodynamic forces are described using the Piston theory.The temperature is considered uniform over the thickness of the panel.The aero-thermo-elastic model is derived in the framework of the Carrera unified formulation(CUF),therefore the matrices are expressed in a compact form using the″fundamental nuclei″.Composite and sandwich structures are considered and different boundary conditions are taken into account.The effects of the thermal load on the aeroelastic behavior are investigated.