New type of flutter solution based on flutter determinant

A new flutter solution method was presented based on flutter determinant as a combination of the concept of flutter and matrix analysis theories. This method could locate the flutter boundary by directly computing indicators, which include the modulus of flutter determinant and the minimum module eigenvalue of flutter matrix. These indicators were proven equivalent with each other at the critical flutter point. The corresponding algorithm was developed for flutter solution by frequency sweeping approach. It was demonstrated by standard numerical examples that these two indicators give the same flutter results which agree well with those obtained by the p-k method. The information of coupled flutter modes can also be determined quantitatively from the flutter eigenvector at the critical flutter point.