The flutter of orthotropic sandwich plates with an electrorheological fluid layer subjected to supersonic airflow is discussed in this article. The sandwich plate consists of an electrorheological fluid layer, a base and a constraining orthotropic layer. The first piston theory is used to model the aerodynamic forces. Hamilton’s principle is employed to derive the finite element equations of motion. Taking the aerodynamic damping into account, an iterative complex eigenvalue solution is conducted to determine the flutter boundaries. The effects of electric field strength, electrorheological layer thickness, electrorheological fluid type, constraining layer thickness, and fiber angle of orthotropic faces on the critical aerodynamic pressure are investigated. Both simply supported and clamped boundary conditions are considered. The results show that the electrorheological core layer is capable of shifting the flutter instability of the system. It is also found that the electrorheological fluid type and the thickness ratios have significant effects on the flutter bounds.

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