Stability of a Beam on an Elastic Foundation Subjected to a Follower Force

The purpose of this note is to draw attention to an intuitively unexpected and seemingly unknown aspect of the behavior of a cantilevered beam on an elastic foundation subjected to a follower at its free end. It is found that the critical load for flutter is independent of the foundation modulus which characterizes the Winkler-type elastic embedding. The frequency of vibration of the beam increases with increasing foundation modulus, but the magnitude of the critical load is not affected. This result is valid for any value of 'tangency coefficient'. (Author).