Free vibration of axially loaded laminated conical shells

Analytical solutions for the three displacements are obtained in the form of power series, directly from the three governing equations for free vibration of laminated conical shells under axial load. Numerical results are presented for free vibration of axially loaded laminated conical shells with different geometric parameters and render two types of boundary conditions. It is found that an axial tension increases the frequencies while an axial compression decreases the frequencies. For the shells studied, the effect of axial load on the lowest frequency of the shell is found to be not sensitive to change in semivertex angle when the applied axial load is kept as a constant fraction of the critical buckling load. However, the axial load effect becomes very sensitive to variation in semivertex angle when a constant axial load is applied.