VIBRATION OF FUNCTIONALLY GRADED CYLINDRICAL-SHELLS

Functionally gradient materials (FGMs) have attracted much attention a s advanced structural materials because of their heat-resistance prope rties. In this paper, a study on the vibration of cylindrical shells m ade of a functionally gradient material (FGM) composed of stainless st eel and nickel is presented. The objective is to study the natural fre quencies, the influence of constituent volume fractions and the effect s of configurations of the constituent materials on the frequencies. T he properties are graded in the thickness direction according to a vol ume fraction power-law distribution. The results show that the frequen cy characteristics are similar to that observed for homogeneous isotro pic cylindrical shells and the frequencies are affected by the constit uent volume fractions and the configurations of the constituent materi als. The analysis is carried out with strains-displacement relations f rom Love's shell theory and the eigenvalue governing equation is obtai ned using Rayleigh-Ritz method. The present analysis is validated by c omparing results with those in the literature. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scien ce Ltd. All rights reserved.