Three-dimensional vibration analysis of thick, circular and annular plates with nonlinear thickness variation

A three-dimensional (3-D) method of analysis is presented for determining the free vibration frequencies and mode shapes of thick, circular and annular plates with nonlinear thickness variation along the radial direction. Unlike conventional plate theories, which are mathematically two-dimensional (2-D), the present method is based upon the 3-D dynamic equations of elasticity. Displacement components u_s, u_z, and u_θ in the radial, thickness, and circumferential directions, respectively, are taken to be sinusoidal in time, periodic in θ, and algebraic polynomials in the s and z directions. Potential (strain) and kinetic energies of the plates are formulated, and the Ritz method is used to solve the eigenvalue problem, thus yielding upper bound values of the frequencies by minimizing the frequencies. As the degree of the polynomials is increased, frequencies converge to the exact values. Convergence to four-digit exactitude is demonstrated for the first five frequencies of the plates. Numerical results are presented for completely free, annular and circular plates with uniform, linear, and quadratic variations in thickness. Comparisons are also made between results obtained from the present 3-D and previously published thin plate (2-D) data.     

A semi analytical method for the free vibration of doubly-curved shells of revolution

In this paper, a semi analytical method is used to investigate the free vibration of doubly-curved shells of revolution with arbitrary boundary conditions. The doubly-curved shells of revolution are divided into their segments in the meridional direction, and the theoretical model for vibration analysis is formulated by applying Flügge’s thin shell theory. Regardless of the boundary conditions, the displacement functions of shell segments are composed by the Jacobi polynomials along the revolution axis direction and the standard Fourier series along the circumferential direction. The boundary conditions at the ends of the doubly-curved shells of revolution and the continuous conditions at two adjacent segments were enforced by the penalty method. Then, the natural frequencies of the doubly-curved shells are obtained by using the Rayleigh–Ritz method. For arbitrary boundary conditions, this method does not require any changes to the mathematical model or the displacement functions, and it is very effective in the analysis of free vibration for doubly-curved shells of revolution. The credibility and exactness of proposed method are compared with the results of finite element method (FEM), and some numerical results are reported for free vibration of the doubly-curved shells of revolution under classical and elastic boundary conditions. Results of this paper can provide reference data for future studies in related field.     

Free vibration analysis of functionally graded conical, cylindrical shell and annular plate structures with a four-parameter power-law distribution

Based on the First-order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT) this paper focuses on the dynamic behavior of moderately thick functionally graded conical, cylindrical shells and annular plates. The last two structures are obtained as special cases of the conical shell formulation. The treatment is developed within the theory of linear elasticity, when materials are assumed to be isotropic and inhomogeneous through the thickness direction. The two-constituent functionally graded shell consists of ceramic and metal. These constituents are graded through the thickness, from one surface of the shell to the other. A generalization of the power-law distribution presented in literature is proposed. Two different four-parameter power-law distributions are considered for the ceramic volume fraction. Some material profiles through the functionally graded shell thickness are illustrated by varying the four parameters of power-law distributions. For the first power-law distribution, the bottom surface of the structure is ceramic rich, whereas the top surface can be metal rich, ceramic rich or made of a mixture of the two constituents and on the contrary for the second one. Symmetric and asymmetric volume fraction profiles are presented in this paper. The homogeneous isotropic material can be inferred as a special case of functionally graded materials (FGM). The governing equations of motion are expressed as functions of five kinematic parameters, by using the constitutive and kinematic relationships. The solution is given in terms of generalized displacement components of the points lying on the middle surface of the shell. The discretization of the system equations by means of the Generalized Differential Quadrature (GDQ) method leads to a standard linear eigenvalue problem, where two independent variables are involved without using the Fourier modal expansion methodology. Numerical results concerning six types of shell structures illustrate the influence of the power-law exponent, of the power-law distribution and of the choice of the four parameters on the mechanical behaviour of shell structures considered.