The ELEMENT-FREE kp-RITZ METHOD FOR VIBRATION OF LAMINATED ROTATING CYLINDRICAL PANELS

In this paper, the element-free kernel particle Ritz method or in short the kp-Ritz method, is developed and implemented for the free vibration analysis of rotating cylindrical panels. Over the years, researchers have employed various trial or admissible functions, such as harmonic and hyperbolic functions as well as polynomials, in the Ritz approximate approach for structural vibration analyses. The present work represents a significant development whereby 2-D reproducing kernel functions are employed to approximate the displacement field. The resulting kp-Ritz method represents the methodology development aspect of this paper. Further the rotating panel problem selected for demonstrating the accuracy and efficiency of this new methodology is also an important contribution of this paper. Although there is a moderate amount of published information on the vibration of rotating cylindrical shells, corresponding studies on rotating panels are conspicuously lacking. This is the first instance in which results have been obtained for rotating cylindrical panels whereby the essential boundary conditions have been fully enforced.