Elasticity solution for free vibration analysis of four-parameter functionally graded fiber orientation cylindrical panels using differential quadrature method

In this paper, three-dimensional free vibrations analysis of a four-parameter functionally graded fiber orientation cylindrical panel is presented. The panel is simply supported at the edges and assumed to have an arbitrary variation of fiber orientation in the radial direction. A generalization of the power-law distribution presented in literature is proposed. Symmetric and asymmetric fiber orientation profiles are studied in this paper. Suitable displacement functions that identically satisfy the boundary conditions at the simply supported edges are used to reduce the equilibrium equations to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients, which can be solved by differential quadrature method to obtain the natural frequency. The main contribution of this work is to illustrate the influence of the power-law exponent, of the power-law distribution choice and of the choice of the four parameters on the natural frequencies of continuous grading fiber orientation cylindrical panels. Numerical results are presented for a cylindrical panel with arbitrary variation of fiber orientation in the shell’s thickness and compared with discrete laminates composite panels. It is shown maximum natural frequencies will be obtained by using symmetric fiber orientation profiles.