A modified Fourier series solution for vibration analysis of truncated conical shells with general boundary conditions

• A unified vibration analysis method is developed for truncated conical shells.
• The proposed method is appropriate for general boundary conditions.
• Effects of dimensional parameters are studied.
• Influence of elastic restraint parameters is investigated.
• New results for truncated conical shells with elastic restraints.

Free vibration analysis of truncated conical shells with general elastic boundary conditions is presented in this paper. An accurate modified Fourier series solution is developed, in which, regardless of the boundary conditions, each displacement of the conical shell is invariantly expressed as a new form of improved series expansions composed of a standard Fourier series and closed-form auxiliary functions introduced to ensure and accelerate the convergence of the series expansion. All the expansion coefficients are treated as the generalized coordinates and determined using the Rayleigh–Ritz method. By using the present method, conical shells with arbitrary boundary conditions including all classical and elastic end restraints can be solved in a unified form. The accuracy and convergence of the current approach are validated by numerical examples and comparison with FEM results and those from the literature, and excellent accuracy is demonstrated. Comprehensive studies on the effects of elastic restraint parameters, semi-vertex angle and the ratio of length to radius are also reported. Some new results are presented for cases with elastic boundary restraints which may serve as benchmark solution for future researches.