Vibration of functionally graded cylindrical shells

Functionally gradient materials (FGMs) have attracted much attention as advanced structural materials because of their heat-resistance properties. In this paper, a study on the vibration of cylindrical shells made of a functionally gradient material (FGM) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented. The objective is to study the natural frequencies, the influence of constituent volume fractions and the effects of configurations of the constituent materials on the frequencies. The properties are graded in the thickness direction according to a volume fraction power-law distribution. The results show that the frequency characteristics are similar to that observed for homogeneous isotropic cylindrical shells and the frequencies are affected by the constituent volume fractions and the configurations of the constituent materials. The analysis is carried out with strains-displacement relations from Love's shell theory and the eigenvalue governing equation is obtained using Rayleigh-Ritz method. The present analysis is validated by comparing results with those in the literature. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.