Free Vibration and Buckling Analysis of Thick Composite Cylindrical Shells Using New Refined Higher-Order Shell Theory

In this paper, a closed-form formulation of three-dimensional (3-D) refined higher-order shell theory (RHOST) to analyze the free vibration and buckling analysis of thick composite laminated circular cylindrical shells is presented. The circular cylindrical shell is considered as composite cross-ply laminated shell with orthotropic layers and simply supported boundary conditions at both ends. The theory is a modification of the Reddy's theory for circular cylindrical shells and accounts for parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strains through thickness of the shell and tangential stress-free boundary conditions on the boundary surfaces of the shell. The proposed theory is used to investigate the effects of in-plane and rotary inertias as well as transverse normal and shear strains on the dynamic and static response of composite cylindrical shells. By using Hamilton’s principle, the equations of motions are obtained and solved using the Galerkin method. Numerical results for the natural frequencies of composite circular cylindrical shell are verified by making comparison with those in the literature. Results show that new verified method with less mathematical process is accurate in compare with Reddy's and 3-D Elasticity theories to obtain results of the free vibration analysis

Keywords:

Free vibration , Higher-order shell theory , Composite , Cylindrical Shell Buckling Analysis