Advances in dynamic instability: can a beam-column undergo tensile flutter?

Tensile instability in beam-like structures has been highlighted in very few papers; the studies reported in the specificliterature are limited to beam-columns characterised either by high shear deformation or by the presence of a singlestructural junction allowing a transversal displacement discontinuity. Moreover, to the authors’ knowledge, the flutterinstability associated to tensile axial load has not yet been disclosed. This work aims to offer further contribution to theknowledge of tensile instability of beam-columns by considering the dynamic instability of an Euler Bernoulli beam inpresence of an arbitrary number of internal sliders endowed with translational elastic springs. The use of the generalisedfunctions allows an exact evaluation of the eigensolution, provided in closed form, both for conservative and nonconservativeaxial load. In particular, the following relevant question is posed: Can a beam-column undergo tensile flutterinstability? A comprehensive parametric analysis conducted in this work gives an affirmative answer to the askedquestion.