Axisymmetric dynamics of composite spherical shells with active piezoelectric/composite stiffeners

The paper presents a theoretical formulation for spherical shells reinforce d by meridional and circumferential stiffeners. Active damping of the shell is introduced through control action of piezoelectric coupled pairs bonded to the meridional stiffeners. The induced loads can include radial pressur e and a thermal field that are independent of the circumferential coordinat e. Neglecting local deformations between adjacent meridional stiffeners, th e response of the shell will be axisymmetric. The analysis employs the Donn ell-Mushtari-Vlasov version of Love's theory of shells together with a smea red stiffeners technique. The paper also considers a particular case of she ll mounted piezoelectric coupled pairs without conventional stiffeners. A c losed form solution is derived for spherical panels without conventional st iffeners within the range of the meridional coordinate between 75 degrees a nd 90 degrees using a version of the Geckeler approximation.