Static stability analysis of a thin plate with a fixed trailing edge in axial subsonic flow: Possio integral equation approach

In this work, the static stability of a thin plate in axial subsonic airflow is studied using the framework of Possio integral equation. Specifically, we consider the cases when the plate’s leading edge is free and the plate’s trailing edge is either pinned or clamped. We formulate the problem under consideration using a partial differential equations (PDE) model and then linearize the model about the free stream velocity, density, and pressure, to enable analytical treatment. Based on the linearized model, we introduce a new derivation of a Possio integral equation that relates the pressure jump along the thin plate to the plate’s downwash. The steady state solution to the Possio equation is then used to account for the aerodynamic loads in the plate steady state governing equation resulting in a singular differential-integral equation which is transformed to a singular integral equation that represents the static aeroelastic equation of the plate. We verify the solvability of the static aeroelastic equation based on the Fredholm alternative for compact operators in Banach spaces and the contraction mapping theorem. By constructing solutions to the static aeroelastic equation and matching the nonzero boundary conditions at the trailing edge with the zero boundary conditions at the leading edge, we obtain characteristic equations for the free-clamped and free-pinned plates. The minimum solutions to the characteristic equations are the divergence speeds which indicate when static instabilities start to occur. We show analytically that free-pinned plates are statically unstable. We also construct, analytically, flow speed intervals that correspond to static stability regions for free-clamped plates. Furthermore, we resort to numerical computations to obtain an explicit formula for the divergence speed of free-clamped plates. Finally, we apply the obtained results on piezoelectric plates and we show that free-clamped piezoelectric plates are statically more stable than conventional free-clamped plates due to the piezoelectric coupling.