Vibration analysis of laminated composite curved shells

Abstract

Composite Materials and structures are becoming very popular and are used in a variety of applications in aeronautical, marine and automotive industries primarily because of its specific strength i.e strength to weight ratio and stiffness. So it becomes very important to determine the vibrational characteristics of shells. Very little research has been done related to determination of natural frequencies of shells by experimental methods so this work is primarily inclined to determination of natural frequency of shells from experimental methods and validate it by using a MATLAB program. In the present research cylindrical shells of varying thickness are cast by the use of glass fibre. The effects of radius of curvature, thickness of shells, number of layers, different support conditions, ply orientation and Aspect ratio on the natural vibration frequency of shells are studied. A finite element package, MATLAB is used to obtain the numerical results and these numerical results are checked against the experimental results obtained.