Abstract The R-functions theory and Ritz approach are applied for analysis of free vibrations of laminated functionally graded shallow shells with different types of curvatures and complex planforms. Shallow shells are considered as sandwich shells of different types: a) face sheets of the shallow shells are made of a functionally graded material (FGM) and their cores are made of an isotropic material; b) face sheets of the shallow shells are isotropic, but the core is made of FGM. It is assumed that FGM layers are made of a mixture of metal and ceramics and effective material properties of layers are varied accordingly to Voigt’s rule. Formulation of the problem is carried out using the first-order (Timoshenko’s type) refined theory of shallow shells. Different types of boundary conditions, including clamped, simply supported, free edge and their combinations, are studied. The proposed method and the created computer code have been examined on test problems for shallow shells with rectangular planforms. In order to demonstrate the possibility of the developed approach, novel results for laminated FGM shallow shells with cut of the complex form are presented. Effects of different material distributions, mechanical properties of the constituent materials, lamination scheme, boundary conditions and geometrical parameters on natural frequencies are shown and analyzed.

Abstract Geometrically nonlinear vibrations of functionally graded shallow shells of complex planform are studied. The paper deals with a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of ceramics and metal through the thickness. The analysis is performed with the use of the R-functions theory and variational Ritz method. Moreover, the Bubnov-Galerkin and the Runge-Kutta methods are employed. A novel approach of discretization of the equation of motion with respect to time is proposed. According to the developed approach, the eigenfunctions of the linear vibration problem and some auxiliary functions are appropriately matched to fit unknown functions of the input nonlinear problem. Application of the R-functions theory on every step has allowed the extension of the proposed approach to study shallow shells with an arbitrary shape and different kinds of boundary conditions. Numerical realization of the proposed method is performed only for one-mode approximation with respect to time. Simultaneously, the developed method is validated by investigating test problems for shallow shells with rectangular and elliptical planforms, and then applied to new kinds of dynamic problems for shallow shells having complex planforms.

The present formulation of the analysed problem is based on Donell's nonlinear shallow shell theory, which adopts Kirchhoff's hypothesis. Transverse shear deformations and rotary inertia of a shell are neglected. According to this theory, the non-linear strain-displacement relations at the shell midsurface has been proposed. The validity and reliability of the proposed approach has been illustrated and discussed, and then a few examples of either linear or non-linear dynamics of shells with variable thickness and complex shapes have been presented and discussed.

The problem of nonlinear vibrations and stability analysis for the symmetric laminated plates with complex shape, loaded by static or periodic load in-plane is considered. In general case research of stability and parametric vibrations is connected with many mathematical difficulties. For this reason we propose approach based on application of R-functions theory and variational methods (RFM).The developed method takes into account pre-buckle stress state of the plate. The proposed approach is demonstrated on testing problems and applied to laminated plates with cutouts. The effects of geometrical parameters, load, boundary conditions on stability regions and nonlinear vibrations are investigated.