Author(s)

M. Laitinen

Abstract

Ritz solution for a laminated composite cylinder with variable fibre orientation M. Laitinen Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Oulu, Linnanmaa SF-90570 Oulu, Finland ABSTRACT The Ritz method is applied to the free vibration problem of a simply supported laminated composite cylinder with variable fibre orientation. A shear defor- mable version of the Sander's shell theory is used in the model and a linear function is introduced for the fibre orientation due to practical limitations on manufacturing techniques and the orientation is assumed to be symmetric about the midlength of the cylinder. Selected results, compared with finite element solutions, are presented for various composite cylinders with different length to radius ratios and lay-up sequences. INTRODUCTION The use of composite materials allows a designer to tailor a structure to provide the best static and dynamic behaviour in service conditions. The tailoring is usually done by c

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