Vibration characteristics of conical shell panels with three-dimensional flexibility

A first known investigation on the three-dimensional vibration characterist ics of conical shell panels is reported. A linear frequency equation is der ived based on an exact three-dimensional, small-strain, linearly elastic th eory. Sets of one and two-dimensional polynomial series are employed to app roximate the spatial displacements of the conical shell panels in three dim ension. The perturbation of frequency responses due to the variations of re lative thickness L/h, slanted length L/S, vertex angle gamma (u), and subte nded angle gamma (o) is investigated. First known frequency parameters and three-dimensional deformed mode shapes of the conical shell panels are pres ented in vivid graphical forms. The new results may serve as benchmark refe rences for validating the new refined shell theories and new computational techniques.