FREE VIBRATION CHARACTERISTICS OF SANDWICH CONICAL SHELLS WITH FGM FACE SHEETS: A FINITE ELEMENT APPROACH

This paper presents an analytical investigation on the free vibration characteristics of symmetric sandwich conical shell with functionally graded material (FGM) face sheets using finite element method. Sandwich-type structures offer higher stiffness to weight ratio with excellent thermal barrier in high temperature application extending the operational life of the component. The sandwich-type conical structure used in the advanced supersonic and hypersonic space vehicles. The material properties of FGM face sheets are considered to be varied in thickness direction as per simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the FGM constituents. The core layer is considered as homogeneous and made of an isotropic material (Titanium alloy-Ti-6Al-4V). A finite element method is used to reduce the governing equations of vibration problem. The QR iteration algorithm used to solve the standard eigen value problem for determine the natural frequencies. Convergence studies are performed in respect of mesh sizes to substantiate the accuracy of the proposed method Computer codes developed to obtain the numerical results for the combined effects of twist angle and rotational speed on the free vibration characteristics of symmetric sandwich conical shell with FGM face sheets. A detailed numerical study is carried out to examine the influence of the sandwich plate type, volume fraction index on the free vibration characteristics. The typical mode shapes are also illustrated for different cases.