Free vibration of joined conical-cylindrical shells made of composite materials

The transfer matrix method by T.Irie has proven very useful in the analyses of the free vibrations of various plates and shells. The main purpose of the present study is to extend this approach to the free vibration of joined conical-cylindrical shells made from composite materials. Once the matrix has been determined, the entire structure matrix are obtained by the transfer matrices of the shells and the point matrix at the joint, and frequency equation is derived with terms of the elements of the structure matrix under the boundary conditions. The transfer matrix of each shell element derived is expressed by a close form rather than a power series one given by T.Irie, therefore numerical calculations can be carried out in higher precision as compared with the transfer matrix method used before. The natural frequencies and the mode shapes of vibration calculated numerically, and the results are presented.