Vibration analysis of bimodulus laminated cylindrical panels

This paper deals with the flexural vibration behavior of bimodular laminated composite cylindrical panels with various boundary conditions. The formulation is based oil first order shear deformation theory and Bert's constitutive model. The governing equations are derived using finite element method and Lagrange's equation of motion. An iterative eigenvalue approach is employed to obtain the positive and negative half cycle free vibration frequencies and corresponding mode shapes. A detailed parametric study is carried out to study the influences of thickness ratio, aspect ratio, lamination scheme, edge conditions and bimodularity ratio on the free vibration characteristics of bimodulus angle- and cross-ply composite laminated cylindrical panels. It is interesting to observe that there is a significant difference between the frequencies of positive and negative half cycles depending on the panel parameters. Through the thickness distribution of modal stresses for positive half cycle is significantly different from that for negative half cycle unlike unimodular case wherein the stresses at a particular location in negative half cycle would be of same magnitude but of opposite sign of those corresponding to positive half cycle. Finally, the effect of bimodularity on the steady state response versus forcing frequency relation is studied for a typical case. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.