Vibration Analysis of Hemispherical Shells of Revolution Having Variable Thickness with and without Axial Conical Holes from a Three-Dimensional Theory

Abstract

A three-dimensional (3D) method of analysis is presented for determining the free vibration frequencies of hemispherical shells of revolution having linearly varying thickness along the meridional direction (phi) with and without an axial conical hole fixed at the bottom edge and with the remaining boundaries free based upon a curvilinear coordinate system (phi, z, ) using the Ritz method. A convergence study is presented. Natural frequencies from the present 3D analysis are also compared with those from other 3D finite methods. (C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.