Vibration behaviours of composite conical-cylindrical shells with damping coating: Theory and experiment

This study presents the theoretical and experimental investigations on vibration behaviours of carbon fiber/ resin composite conical-cylindrical shells (or C-C shells) with damping coating. First, an analytical model of such a combined shell with coating material considers the effects of base harmonic excitation load under arbitrary boundary conditions is proposed using the first-order shear deformation theory, virtual artificial spring technique, modal superposition approach, the Rayleigh-Ritz method, etc. Subsequently, the solutions of fundamental frequencies, mode shapes, and vibration displacements in the frequency domain are acquired by deriving the corresponding energy expressions and motion equations. Convergence analysis is utilized to determine the virtual spring stiffness value and the appropriate truncation numbers. Both literature and experimental results are conducted to give an adequate validation of the current model, in which the continuous 3D printing technology is adapted to fabricate two C-C shell specimens with one of the outside surfaces being sprayed by coating material using an atomization deposition approach. Finally, the effects of the coating thickness ratio, Young's modulus ratio of the coating and the substrate shell, the semi-vertex angle, and the fiber laying angle on the free vibration and forced vibrations of the coated structure are discussed, with some practical recommendations being provided to improve the vibration suppression of such a coated structure.