Exact solutions for the stability of viscoelastic rectangular plate subjected to tangential follower force

An exact solution procedure is formulated for the stability analysis of viscoelastic rectangular plate with two opposite edges simply supported and other two edges clamped as well as the viscoelastic rectangular plate with one edge clamped and other three edges simply supported under the action of tangential follower force. Firstly, by assuming the transverse displacement (W) as independent functions which automatically satisfies the simply supported boundary conditions, the governing partial differential equation is reduced to an ordinary differential equation with variable coefficients. Then, by the normalized power series method and applying the boundary conditions yield the eigenvalue problem of finding the roots of a fourth-order characteristic determinant. The results show that the aspect ratio lambda and the dimensionless delay time H have great effects on the types of instability and the critical loads of the viscoelastic plates.