Free vibration analysis of conical shells via the element-free kp-Ritz method

In this paper, we consider the free vibration analysis of thin conical shells under different boundary conditions. The analysis is carried out using the element-free kp-Ritz method. The present study is based on the classical thin-shell theory. The kernel particle (kp) functions are employed in hybridized form with harmonic functions to approximate the two-dimensional displacement field. In order to examine the numerical stability of the present approach, convergence studies are performed based on the influences of the support size and the number of nodes. To verify the accuracy of this method, comparisons of the present results are made with results available in the open literature. This study also examines in detail the effects of semi-vertex angles and boundary conditions on the frequency characteristics of the conical shells. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.