The flutter behavior of simply supported rectangular isotropic,
cross-ply and angle-ply plates with delaminations was investigated by the
finite strip method. The effects of delamination length, delamination
location, panel aspect ratio, and fiber orientation on the flutter of the plate
were studied in detail. The results show that the stiffness and flutter
boundary of the delaminated plate decrease with the increase of
delamination length in general. However, the coalescence pair changes
when the delamination is centered in a specific region. The flutter boundary
of the delaminated plate may be higher than the one of the plate without
delamination. Because the change in the coalescence pair postpones the
coalescence of two eigenvalues, the 3D plot of the flutter boundary is like
an oblique volcano and the coalescence pair changes within the volcano
crater.