Buckling and Flutter of A Column Enhanced By Piezoelectric Layers and Lumped Mass Under A Follower Force

In this paper, enhancement of the buckling and flutter capacities of a column by the attachment of an arbitrary lumped mass and a pair of piezoelectric layers on the column sides are studied. The column is subjected to a follower force, with one end fixed and the other end elastically restrained by a spring. To investigate the effects of the piezoelectric layers on the column instability capacity and frequency, parameters such as the follower force, spring stiffness, and mass ratio and attachment location are included in the analysis based on the generalized function theory and Lagrange–Rayleigh–Ritz technique. The numerical results reveal that if each of the design parameters of the piezoelectric layers, follower force, spring stiffness, or external mass exceeds a certain critical value, the column will undergo buckling and flutter instabilities. Besides, comparisons are made with available results in the literature and excellent agreement is observed.