A theoretical investigation of the flutter and postflutter of infinitely long thin-walled circular cylindrical pan- els in a supersonic/hypersonic flowfield is presented. In this context, third-order piston theory and shock wave aerodynamics are used in conjunction with the geometrically nonlinear shell theory to obtain the pertinent aeroe- lastic governing equations. The effects of in-plane edge restraints and small initial geometric imperfections are also considered in the model. The objective is twofold: 1) to analyze the implications of nonlinear unsteady aero- dynamics and structural nonlinearities on the character of the flutter instability boundary and 2) to outline the effects played, in the same respect, by a number of important geometrical, physical, and aerodynamic parameters characterizing the aeroelastic system.
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