A four node quadrilateral shell element for free vibration response of functionally graded spherical shell panels

Abstract

Abstract The present work involves the free vibration analysis of functionally graded spherical shells using a four-node quadrilateral shell element. This four-node, shell element has seven DOF (Degrees of Freedom) per node namely; three displacements, two rotations of mid-plane, and two transverse shear strain com-ponents. The element is developed by modifying the discrete Kirchhoff quadri-lateral shell element based on Reddy’s third-order theory developed earlier by the authors for the cylindrical shell. By transforming all the degrees of freedom from local to global coordinates using a transformation matrix converts the plate bending element into a flat shell element, resulting in the present formulation being suitable to give results for thin shells as well as for thick shells. In the present work functionally graded spherical shell panels with simply supported as well as clamped boundary condition, with various radius to span ratios and with different volume fraction indices are analyzed for free vibration response. The power law property variation through the thickness is considered in this study. To assess the performance of the developed element, the results, of non-dimen-sionalised frequencies are compared with the results presented in the literature. Comparison of results shows that the developed element yields quite accurate results even with the coarser mesh, which indicates the computational efficiency. It is also seen that the percentage difference between the present results and the other results available in the literature is less than 2 in most of the cases.