Effect of damping on flutter of simply supported and clamped panels at low supersonic speeds

Single mode panel flutter is one of two panel flutter types that can occur at low supersonic flow speeds. Over the years it is considered by researchers and engineers as weak and being unable to occur on a real structure due to small growth rate, easily suppressible by the structural damping of the panel. Though recent experiments demonstrated that this opinion is wrong, and single mode flutter can actually occur, it is still unknown what damping level the structure should have to avoid flutter. In this paper we study flutter of damped panels at low supersonic speeds. It is shown that for typical structural damping levels single mode flutter is not always avoidable. Moreover, for some conditions damping level necessary to suppress flutter is too high and cannot be achieved by the structure itself. •We investigate flutter of damped elastic plates in low supersonic flow.•Damping has very small effect on coupled mode panel flutter.•On the contrary, damping effect on single mode futter is essential.•However, even high structural damping not always can suppress single mode flutter.