Free vibration analysis of carbon nanotube-reinforced functionally graded composite shell structures

This paper deals with free vibration analysis of functionally graded composite shell structures reinforced by carbon nanotubes. Uniform and three distributions of carbon nanotubes which are graded in the thickness direction of the structure are considered. The effective material properties are determined via a micro-mechanical model using some efficiency parameters. The equations of motion are developed based on a discrete double directors shell finite element formulation which introduces the transverse shear deformations via a higher-order distribution of the displacement field. Comparison studies are carried out for various functionally graded composite shell structures reinforced by carbon nanotubes in order to highlight the applicability and the efficiency of the proposed model in the prediction of the vibrational behavior of such shell structures.