Vibration of laminated composite cylindrical shells with cutouts using higher order theory

Free vibration of laminated composite shells with cutouts are presented by a nine noded curved C0 finite element (FE) formulation developed by authors based on higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) using Sander's approximations. The proposed model satisfies parabolic distribution of transverse shear strains through the shell thickness and zero transverse shear stress conditions at shell top and bottom. The 2D finite element implementation of the higher order shear deformation theory is done to solve the problem of free vibration problem of laminated composite shells with cutouts. Validations of numerical results show that the present 2D model is fairly good in predicting the different modes of vibration of shells with cutouts. Free vibration of laminated composite shells with cutouts has been done for first five modes by varying boundary conditions and geometry of composite shells. New results are presented which should be useful for future research.