APPLICATIONS OF FEM ON FREE AND FORCED VIBRATION OF LAMINATED SHELLS

In this paper, the finite element method has been applied to solve fre e and forced vibration problems of isotropic and laminated composite s hells with and without cutouts employing the eight-node isoparametric finite element formulation. Specific numerical problems of earlier inv estigators are solved to compare their results. Moreover, free vibrati on problems of cylindrical, spherical, saddle (hyperbolic paraboloid b ounded by parabolas), hypar (hyperbolic paraboloid bounded by straight lines), and conoidal shells with cutouts and forced vibration of comp osite hypar and conoidal shells without cutouts are examined to arrive at some conclusions useful to the designers. Eccentrically positioned cutouts and transient stresses are other aspects studied in detail in free and forced vibration analyses, respectively.