Nonlinear vibrations of plates in axial pulsating flow

A theoretical approach is presented to study nonlinear vibrations of thin infinitely long rectangular plates subjected to pulsatile axial inviscid flow. The case of plates in axial uniform flow under the action of constant transmural pressure is also addressed for different flow velocities. The equations of motion are obtained based on the von Karman nonlinear plate theory retaining in-plane inertia via Lagrangian approach. The fluid model is based on potential flow theory and the Galerkin method is applied to determine the expression of the flow perturbation potential. The effect of different system parameters such as flow velocity, pulsation amplitude, pulsation frequency, and channel pressurization on the stability of the plate and its geometrically nonlinear response to pulsating flow are fully discussed. In case of zero uniform transmural pressure numerical results show hardening type behavior for the entire flow velocity range when the pulsation frequency is spanned in the neighbourhood of the plate's fundamental frequency. Conversely, a softening type behavior is presented when a uniform transmural pressure is introduced.