Free vibration analysis of conical shells reinforced with agglomerated Carbon Nanotubes

• Free vibrations of Carbon Nanotube (CNT)-Reinforced Composite conical shells are studied.
• The effect of volume fraction, agglomeration, boundary conditions and geometry of CNTs is analysed.
• The Generalized Differential Quadrature is applied for numerical analyses.
• The agglomeration and geometric parameters plays a significant role on natural frequencies.

In the present work, a free vibration analysis of Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Composite (CNTRC) conical shells is performed considering the agglomeration effect of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs). The material properties of the nanocomposite conical shell are estimated employing the Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka approach based on an equivalent fiber assumption. The numerical results are compared with the experimental data available from the literature. The equations of motion are derived based on the First-order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT). The Generalized Differential Quadrature (GDQ) technique is originally implemented to solve the governing equations of the problem and to obtain the natural frequencies of the structures, since it has proven to be an efficient and accurate numerical tool. A parametric study is herein developed to investigate the influence of some characteristic parameters on the vibrational behavior of the CNTRC conical shell, e.g. the CNTs volume fraction and agglomeration, or the boundary conditions and geometrical parameters like the thickness to radius ratio. Based on results, it is found that agglomeration of CNTs plays a significant role on the natural frequency of the structure.