SEMIANALYTICAL STUDY OF FREE-VIBRATION OF COMPOSITE SHELLS OF REVOLUTION BASED ON THE REISSNER-MINDLIN ASSUMPTION

A semi-analytical procedure is presented for predicting free vibration characteristics of composite shells of revolution. The approach consi ders both transverse shear deformation and the coupling between symmet ric and unsymmetric modes in laminated composite shells. Numerical exa mples are given for the free vibrations of thin cylindrical laminated composite shells and moderately thick symmetric cross-ply and antisymm etric angle-ply laminated composite conical shells. The effects of she ar deformation, circumferential wave number, thickness to radius ratio , ply angle and stacking sequence on natural frequency are discussed.