Hydroelastic instability of orthotropic panels with infinite width under shearing load

An analysis is presented of the hydroelastic instability of an orthotropic plate with finite length and infinite width exposed to an incompressible inviscid flow over its upper surface and subjected to shearing loads along both its edges. On the basis of the small deflection plate theory and the classical linearized potential flow theory, the problem is solved for two different boundary conditions by means of the Galerkin method and Fourier transforms. It is found that an increase of the shearing load larger than about one half of the buckling load reduces rapidly the divergence velocity and increases discontinuously the divergence wavelength.