Nonlinear Free Vibrations Analysis of Delaminated Composite Conical Shells

This paper examines the nonlinear free vibration of laminated composite conical shells throughout the circumferential delamination. First, based on the energy method, the governing equation of motion for the shell was derived. To simplify the analysis, the nonlinear partial differential equations were reduced into a system of coupled ordinary differential equations using Galerkin's method. Consequently, the results were obtained by the numerical methods. Finally, the effects of delamination, variations in the delamination length, conical shells characteristics, materials property and circumferential wave number on the nonlinear response of delaminated composite conical shells were examined. The results show that the presence of delamination leads to increase in the amplitude of oscillations for the shells. Besides, the increase in the delamination length and decrease of the circumferential wave number, number of layers, and half vertex angle of the cone and orthotropy bring about a decrease in the nonlinearity of delaminated composite conical shells. However, an increase of the middle surface radius of the shell leads to a reduction of the nonlinearity as well as an increase of the amplitude.