Vibration Characteristics of Conical Shell Panels With Three-Dimensional Flexibility

Abstract

A first known investigation on the three-dimensional vibration characteristics of conical shell panels is reported. A linear frequency equation is derived based on an exact three-dimensional, small-strain, linearly elastic theory. Sets of one and two-dimensional polynomial series are employed to approximate the spatial displacements of the conical shell panels in three dimension. The perturbation of frequency responses due to the variations of relative thickness L/h, slanted length L/S, vertex angle γv, and subtended angle γo is investigated. First known frequency parameters and three-dimensional deformed mode shapes of the conical shell panels are presented in vivid graphical forms. The new results may serve as benchmark references for validating the new refined shell theories and new computational techniques. [S0021-8936(00)02302-3]