Divergence and Flutter Stability Boundaries of a Rocket Modeled as Thin-Walled Composite Beams

Melahat Cihan, Seher Eken, and Metin Orhan Kaya

In this paper we present the results of the dynamic stability analysis of a flexible spinning aerospace vehicle subjected to thrust load. In order to model the vehicle, we choose a thin-walled composite beam with circular cross-section featuring bending-bending-shear coupled motion. In the presence of gyroscopic forces, we find the divergence and/or the flutter instabilities and plot the stability boundaries of the spinning beam. The solution is provided by the extended Galerkin method (EGM) and the results are plotted to show the effects of ply angle and transverse shear on the dynamic stability of beam. We observe that both ply angle and transverse shear significantly affect the stability behavior of the aerospace vehicle and must be carefully addressed in the design process.

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