Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 June 2016
Experience has shown that it is often necessary to retain many degrees of freedom in order to calculate critical nutter speeds reliably, but this entails much labour. Part I discusses the choice of a minimum set of freedoms and suggests that this should be based on the equation of energy and the use of the Lagrangian dynamical equation corresponding to any proposed additional freedom. The methods for conducting flutter calculations so as to minimise labour are treated in Part II.