An analytical study of thermal environment’s effect on the free vibration of FGM double curved FG shells

Abstract

The main objectif of this work is to examine the thermal environment’s effect of on the free vibration of double curvature shells made of functionally graded materials. A new mathematical model based on higher order shear deformation theory, is developed to incorporate the influence of dependent and independent thermal stresses, which can be uniform, linear, nonlinear, or sinusoidal on the mechanical properties of the double curvature shell. Two material couples, ( S i 3 N 4 / SUS 304 , ZrO 2 /Ti‐6Al‐4V ) , are considered as progressive materials, accounting for temperature-dependent and temperature-independent heat conduction and material properties in the thickness direction. The temperature field is assumed to be uniform across the shell surface but varies only in the thickness direction. The accuracy of the analytical results is validated by comparing them with existing literature results for functionally graded material (FGM) shells with infinite radii under dependent and independent temperature conditions. The study aims to demonstrate the thermal effects on material composition, as well as various specific geometric shapes such as plates, cylinders, spheres and ellipses and how different temperature laws influence the frequencies of vibrating double curvature FGM shells. Both existing theories accurately predict temperature-independent and temperature-dependent vibration responses of the shells. By verifying and comparing the results with the literature, a better agreement is achieved, thereby paving the way for further research in this field.