Research Advances in the Dynamic Stability Behavior of Plates and Shells: 1987–2005—Part I: Conservative Systems

This paper reviews most of the recent research done in the field of dynamic stability/dynamic instability/parametric excitation/parametric resonance characteristics of structures with special attention to parametric excitation of plate and shell structures. The solution of dynamic stability problems involves derivation of the equation of motion, discretization, and determination of dynamic instability regions of the structures. The purpose of this study is to review most of the recent research on dynamic stability in terms of the geometry (plates, cylindrical, spherical, and conical shells), type of loading (uniaxial uniform, patch, point loading …), boundary conditions (SSSS, SCSC, CCCC …), method of analysis (exact, finite strip, finite difference, finite element, differential quadrature, and experimental …), method of determination of dynamic instability regions (Lyapunovian, perturbation, and Floquet’s methods), order of theory being applied (thin, thick, three-dimensional, nonlinear …), shell theory used (Sanders’, Love’s and Donnell’s), materials of structures (homogeneous, bimodulus, composite, FGM …), and the various complicating effects such as geometrical discontinuity, elastic support, added mass, fluid structure interactions, nonconservative loading and twisting, etc. The important effects on dynamic stability of structures under periodic loading have been identified and influences of various important parameters are discussed. A review of the subject for nonconservative systems in detail will be presented in Part 2. This review paper cites 156 references.