Instability of a delaminated composite beam subjected to a concentrated follower force

Vibration, budding and flutter instability of delaminated composite beams are studied in this paper. An analytical solution is presented for instability of a composite beam with a single delamination subjected to concentrated follower force. Using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and Classical Lamination Theory, equation of motion of a delaminated beam is derived and solved analytically for free vibration, buckling and flutter instability. After validating the results, effect of delamination location, delamination length and stacking sequence on fundamental frequency, budding load and flutter load are studied. Results show that for a cantilever beam, when delamination moves from surface of the beam to its mid-plane, fundamental frequency and buckling load decreased while flutter load is increased.