Vibration characteristics of functionally graded cylindrical shells under various boundary conditions

In the recent years, functionally gradient materials (FGMs) have gained considerable attention in the high temperature environment applications. In the present work, study of the vibration of a functionally graded cylindrical shell made up of stainless steel and zirconia is presented. Material properties are graded in the thickness direction of the shell according to volume fraction power law distribution. Effects of boundary conditions and volume fractions (power law exponent) on the natural frequencies of the FG cylindrical shell are studied. Frequency characteristics of the FG shell are found to be similar to those of isotropic cylindrical shells. Further, natural frequencies of these shells are observed to be dependent on the constituent volume fractions and boundary conditions. Strain displacement relations from Love's shell theory are employed. Rayleigh method is used to derive the governing equations. Further, analytical results are validated with those reported in the literature. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.