Stability and Dynamics of Axially Moving Unidirectional Plates Partially Immersed in a Liquid

The stability and dynamics of an axially moving unidirectional plate partially immersed in a liquid and subjected to a nonlinear aerodynamic excitation are investigated. The method of singular functions is adopted to study the dynamic characteristics of the unidirectional plates with discontinuous characteristics. Nonlinearities due to large-amplitude plate motions are considered by using the classical nonlinear thin plate theory, with allowance for the effect of viscous structural damping. The velocity potential and Bernoulli's equation are used to describe the fluid pressure acting on the unidirectional plate. The effect of fluid on the vibrations of the plate may be equivalent to added mass of the plate. The formulation of added mass is obtained from kinematic boundary conditions of the plate–fluid interfaces. The system is discretized by Galerkin's method while a model involving two degrees of freedom, is adopted. Attention is focused on the behavior of the system in the region of dynamic instability, and several motions are found by numerical simulations. The effects of the moving speed and some other parameters on the dynamics of the system are also investigated. It is shown that chaotic motions can occur in this system in several certain regions of parameter space.