On panel flutter and divergence of infinitely long unstiffened and ring-stiffened thin-walled circular cylinders

A preliminary theoretical investigation of the panel flutter and divergence of infinitely long, unstiffened and ring-stiffened thin-walled circular cylinders is described. Linearized unsteady potential-flow theory is utilized in conjunction with Donnell's cylinder theory to obtain equilibrium equations for panel flutter. Where necessary, a simplified version of Flugge's cylinder theory is used to obtain greater accuracy. By applying Nyquist diagram techniques, analytical criteria for the location of stability boundaries are derived. A limited number of computed results are presented.