A new shear deformation theory for composite multilayered shells of revolution with retainment of Koiter's recommendation: Static and free vibration analyses

Abstract

Most of the available studies relevant to static and free vibration investigation of composite multilayered shells of revolution are on the basis of single-layer shear deformation theories. Interlaminar continuity conditions of out-of-plane shear stresses are not fulfilled by single-layer shear deformation theories and such models are only suitable for analysis of thin shells of revolution. Following Koiter's recommendation, a refined global-local (RGL) theory with full interlaminar continuity conditions is developed in this study for representing of the displacement fields of the multilayered revolution shell structures. The displacement field of the proposed RGL formulation is not dependent on layers and it has only seven generalized displacement variables. The influence of the initial curvature is incorporated in deriving the proposed RGL shell formulation. The equations of motion of the multilayered shells of revolution are firstly extracted in terms of generalized displacement variables. Then, the obtained governing equations are discretized and solved by means of the standard finite element (FE) method. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed RGL shell formulation are confirmed through several numerical examples.