Free vibration analysis of grid stiffened doubly curved composite shells using a refined higher order theory

In this research the free vibration analysis of simply supported grid stiffened doubly curved shells by using a refined higher order theory is presented. The advantage of the present theory in comparison with other higher order theories is investigation of the effects of trapezoidal shape factor in the stress resultants in order to obtain more accurate frequency results. The governing equations of motion and boundary conditions are obtained using Hamilton’s principle and solved by using the Galerkin method. In the case of grid stiffened shells, a distribution function is introduced for describing the physical discontinuity between the ribs and the bays. The results are validated by making comparison to those existed in the literature or those obtained using the present numerical simulation in ABAQUS/Standard solver. In most cases, validations illustrated excellent agreement between the results . Finally, the effects of geometrical properties, material property and layup on the frequency responses of the shell are discussed.