Mechanics Research Communications 36 (2009) 595–602

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Mechanics Research Communications

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mechrescom

The calculations of natural frequencies and forced vibration responses

of conical shell using the Rayleigh–Ritz method
Feng-Ming Li a,b,*, Kikuo Kishimoto b, Wen-Hu Huang a
a
School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 137, Harbin 150001, PR China
b
Department of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: An effective method for analyzing the forced vibration of conical shell is presented. Ham-
Received 9 October 2008 ilton’s principle with the Rayleigh–Ritz method is employed to derive the equation of
Received in revised form 15 January 2009 motion of the conical shell. A set of simpler principal vibration modes of the conical shell
Available online 20 February 2009
with two simply supported boundaries are presented. The natural frequencies of conical
shell can be obtained by solving eigenvalue problem of the equation of motion and the
steady responses of forced vibration can also be obtained by solving the equation of
Keywords:
motion. Numerical comparisons with the results in the open literature are made to validate
Conical shell
Forced vibration analysis
the present methodology. Moreover, the forced vibration responses of a conical shell are
Hamilton’s principle also calculated.
Rayleigh–Ritz method Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Conical shells are widely used in many engineering applications. It is necessary to perform the vibration analysis of con-
ical shells for the purpose of dynamical design, vibration control and so on. Up to now, many papers on the vibration prob-
lems of conical shells have been published (Goldberg et al., 1960; Serpico, 1963; Chang, 1978; Khatri and Asnani, 1995). Lam
and Li (1999) and Li (2000) studied the frequency characteristics of free vibration of rotating conical shell using the Galerkin
method. Fares et al. (2004) investigated the design and active vibration control of composite laminated conical shells. They
used the Liapunov–Bellman theory to obtain the controlled deflections of the shells. Liew et al. (2005) analyzed the free
vibration of thin conical shells using the element-free kp-Ritz method and discussed the frequency properties under differ-
ent parameters. Chai et al. (2006) studied the spatially distributed microscopic control characteristics of distributed actuator
patches on a rocket conical shell. Sofiyev et al. (2008) studied the vibration and stability of orthotropic conical shells with
non-homogeneous material properties under a hydrostatic pressure. It should be noted that Liew and Lim (Liew et al.,
1995; Lim and Liew, 1996, 1995) systematically studied the free vibration of shallow conical shells using the pb-2 Ritz meth-
od. They employed the admissible pb-2 shape functions to approximate the three-dimensional displacements, and calculated
comprehensively the dimensionless natural frequencies and the vibration modes of shallow conical shells.
Although numerous studies on the dynamic problems of the conical shells have been published, the forced vibration
problems of the conical shells should be thoroughly studied. Through the forced vibration analysis, an effective way for cal-
culating the forced vibration responses can be obtained and further used in the vibration control and dynamic designs of the
conical shells. Normally, the equation of motion of the conical shell is very complicated and some of the coefficients of the
equation of motion are variables (Soedel, 1981), which makes it difficult to analytically solve the equation of motion of the
conical shell.

* Corresponding author. Address: School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 137, Harbin 150001, PR China. Tel.: +86 451 86414479.
E-mail address: fmli@hit.edu.cn (F.-M. Li).

0093-6413/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mechrescom.2009.02.003
596 F.-M. Li et al. / Mechanics Research Communications 36 (2009) 595–602

In this study, an effective method for the forced vibration analysis of conical shells is presented. Using Hamilton’s prin-
ciple with the Rayleigh–Ritz method, the equation of motion of the conical shell is derived. A set of simple formulations of
the principal mode shapes is employed and verified to be effective by numerical simulations. Solving the eigenvalue problem
of the equation of motion, the natural frequencies of the conical shell can be obtained. And the steady responses of the forced
vibration of conical shells can also be obtained by solving the equation of motion.

2. Equation of motion

A thin, homogeneous and isotropic conical shell with constant thickness is considered. Fig. 1 shows the schematic dia-
gram of the conical shell. The two boundaries of the conical shell are simply supported (S-S). The corresponding Cartesian
coordinates o-xyz and curvilinear surface coordinates O-nfg are also shown in Fig. 1. The curvilinear surface coordinates
are limited to be orthogonal ones which coincide with the lines of principal curvature of the neutral surface. For conical
shells, the lines of principal curvature of the neutral surface are the meridians (n-axis) and parallel circles (f-axis).
For shell structures, the strain–displacement relationships are given by Soedel (1981)
 
1 @u1 u2 @A1 A1
e11 ¼ þ þ u3 ;
A1 ð1 þ g=R1 Þ @n A2 @f R1
 
1 @u2 u1 @A2 A2
e22 ¼ þ þ u3 ;
A2 ð1 þ g=R2 Þ @f A1 @n R2
   
@u3 A1 ð1 þ g=R1 Þ @ u1 A2 ð1 þ g=R2 Þ @ u2
e33 ¼ ; e12 ¼ þ ;
@g A2 ð1 þ g=R2 Þ @f A1 ð1 þ g=R1 Þ A1 ð1 þ g=R1 Þ @n A2 ð1 þ g=R2 Þ
 
@ u1 1 @u3
e13 ¼ A1 ð1 þ g=R1 Þ þ ;
@ g A1 ð1 þ g=R1 Þ A1 ð1 þ g=R1 Þ @n
 
@ u2 1 @u3
e23 ¼ A2 ð1 þ g=R2 Þ þ ; ð1Þ
@ g A2 ð1 þ g=R2 Þ A2 ð1 þ g=R2 Þ @f
where eij (i, j = 1, 2, 3) are the strains in which 1, 2 and 3 coincide with the n, f and g directions, ui (i = 1, 2, 3) are the dis-
placements in the n, f and g directions, R1 and R2 are the radii of curvature of the two lines of principal curvatures in the
neutral surface of the shell, and A1 and A2 are two variables.
For conical shells, the radii of curvature R1 and R2 with regard to the meridian, i.e. n-axis, and the circle, i.e. f-axis, can be
written as

R1 ¼ þ1; R2 ¼ n tan a0 ; ð2Þ

in which a0 is the semi-vertex cone angle of the conical shell. The two variables A1 and A2 are given by Soedel (1981)
A1 ¼ 1; A2 ¼ n sin a0 : ð3Þ
For thin shells, one can assume that the displacements in the n and f directions vary linearly through the shell thickness
and the displacement in the g direction is independent of g, i.e.
u1 ðn; f; g; tÞ ¼ uðn; f; tÞ þ gaðn; f; tÞ; u2 ðn; f; g; tÞ ¼ v ðn; f; tÞ þ gbðn; f; tÞ; u3 ðn; f; g; tÞ ¼ wðn; f; tÞ; ð4Þ

η z
O ζ
(a) (b)
σ33
l0
ξ α0

l σ32
η σ31
a1 ζ σ21
σ13
σ12
O
σ22 σ23
ξ
y σ11
o
a2

x
Fig. 1. The schematic diagram of a conical shell. (a) The geometry and the Cartesian and curvilinear surface coordinate systems; (b) the infinitesimal shell
element and the corresponding stresses.
 F.-M. Li et al. / Mechanics Research Communications 36 (2009) 595–602 597

where u, v and w denote the displacements in the n, f and g directions in the neutral surface, and a and b are the rotations of
the normal to the neutral surface about the f and n-axis and given by Soedel (1981)
u 1 @w v 1 @w
a¼  ; b¼  : ð5Þ
R1 A1 @n R2 A2 @f
Substituting Eqs. (2)–(4) into Eqs. (1) and (5) yields:

@w v 1 @w @u @2w
a¼ ; b¼  ; e11 ¼ g 2 ;
@n n tan a0 n sin a0 @f @n @n
!
1 @v u w 1 @v 1 @ 2 w 1 @w
e22 ¼ þ þ þg 2   ; e33 ¼ 0;
n sin a0 @f n n tan a0 n sin a0 tan a0 @f n2 sin2 a0 @f2 n @n

1 @u @ v v 2 @2w 1 @v 2 2 @w
e12 ¼ þ  þg  þ  2 vþ 2 ;
n sin a0 @f @n n n sin a0 @n@f n tan a0 @n n tan a0 n sin a0 @f
v
e13 ¼ 0; e23 ¼ : ð6Þ
n tan a0
The relationships between the stresses and strains are written by
1 1
e11 ¼ ½r11  lðr22 þ r33 Þ; e22 ¼ ½r22  lðr11 þ r33 Þ;
E E
1 r12 r13 r23
e33 ¼ ½r33  lðr11 þ r22 Þ; e12 ¼ ; e13 ¼ ; e23 ¼ ; ð7Þ
E G G G
where r11, r22 and r33 are the normal stresses acting in the n, f and g directions, r12, r13 and r23 are the shear stresses in the
curvilinear coordinates O-nfg as shown in Fig. 1b, E is the modulus of elasticity, l is the Poisson’s ratio, and G = E/2(1 + l) is
the shearing modulus. For unloaded outer shell surfaces, r33 = 0. For loaded shells, r33 is usually equivalent in magnitude to
the external load, which is relatively small in most cases compared with the other two normal stresses (Soedel, 1981). In this
analysis, the effects of normal stress r33 are neglected. From Eq. (6) we know that e33 and e13 are zero. Thus solving Eq. (7) for
the stresses yields
8 9 2 83 9
>
>
r11 >
> E=ð1  l2 Þ lE=ð1  l2 Þ 0 0 >
>
e11 >
>
> >
= > >
< r22 6
6 lE=ð1  l Þ
2
E=ð1  l2 Þ 0 0 7
7
< e22 =
¼6 7¼ : ð8Þ
>
>
> r12 >
>
>
4 0 0 G 05 > >
> e12 >
>
>
: ; : ;
r23 0 0 0 G e23
Hamilton’s principle with the Rayleigh–Ritz method will be used to determine the equation of motion of the conical shell.
Hamilton’s principle is written by
Z t2 Z t2
dðT  UÞdt þ dWdt ¼ 0; ð9Þ
t1 t1

where d() denotes the first variation, T, U and W are the kinetic energy, strain energy (Khatri and Asnani, 1995; Mecitoğlu,
1996) and work, and t1 and t2 are the integration time limits.
For thin shells, the influence of rotatory inertia can be neglected. So the kinetic energy is written by
Z "   2  2 #
2
1 @u @v @w
T¼ q þ þ dV; ð10Þ
2 V @t @t @t

where q and V are the mass density and volume of the conical shell.
The strain energy of the conical shell can be written as (Soedel, 1981)
Z
1
U¼ ðr11 e11 þ r22 e22 þ r12 e12 þ r23 e23 ÞdV: ð11Þ
2 V

The infinitesimal volume dV in Eqs. (10) and (11) is given by Soedel (1981)
dV ¼ A1 A2 dndfdg ¼ n sin a0 dndfdg: ð12Þ
The virtual work can be written by
Z
dW ¼ ðq1 du þ q2 dv þ q3 dwÞdA; ð13Þ
A

where A is the surface area of the conical shell, and q1, q2 and q3 are the distributed load components per unit area along the
n, f, and g directions and are assumed to act on the neutral surface of the shell. The units of q1, q2 and q3 are [N/m2]. The
infinitesimal area dA is given by
dA ¼ A1 A2 dndf ¼ n sin a0 dndf: ð14Þ
598 F.-M. Li et al. / Mechanics Research Communications 36 (2009) 595–602

In order to use the Rayleigh–Ritz method, the displacements u, v and w should be expressed in terms of generalized
coordinates:

X
m X
n
uðn; f; tÞ ¼ U ij ðn; fÞpij ðtÞ ¼ U T ðn; fÞpðtÞ; ð15Þ
i¼1 j¼1
m X
X n
v ðn; f; tÞ ¼ V ij ðn; fÞr ij ðtÞ ¼ V T ðn; fÞrðtÞ; ð16Þ
i¼1 j¼1
m X
X n
wðn; f; tÞ ¼ W ij ðn; fÞsij ðtÞ ¼ W T ðn; fÞsðtÞ; ð17Þ
i¼1 j¼1

where p, r and s are the generalized coordinates or modal coordinates, and U, V and W are the displacement shape functions
or the principal vibration modes which must satisfy the geometric boundary conditions. They are written by

p ¼ ½p11 ; . . . ; p1n ; p21 ; . . . ; p2n ; . . . ; pm1 ; . . . ; pmn T ; r ¼ ½r 11 ; . . . ; r1n ; r 21 ; . . . ; r2n ; . . . ; r m1 ; . . . ; rmn T ; s

T T
¼ ½s11 ; . . . ; s1n ; s21 ; . . . ; s2n ; . . . ; sm1 ; . . . ; smn  ; U ¼ ½U 11 ; . . . ; U 1n ; U 21 ; . . . ; U 2n ; . . . ; U m1 ; . . . ; U mn  ; V
T
¼ ½V 11 ; . . . ; V 1n ; V 21 ; . . . ; V 2n ; . . . ; V m1 ; . . . ; V mn  ; W ¼ ½W 11 ; . . . ; W 1n ; W 21 ; . . . ; W 2n ; . . . ; W m1 ; . . . ; W mn T : ð18Þ
Then the kinetic energy, strain energy and work are expressed in terms of the generalized coordinates and displacement
shape functions. Substituting Eqs. (12), (15), (16), and (17) into Eq. (10) to

1 dpT dp 1 dr T dr 1 dsT ds
T¼ M1 þ M2 þ M3 ; ð19Þ
2 dt dt 2 dt dt 2 dt dt
where M1, M2 and M3 are the modal mass matrices of the conical shell and they are listed in Appendix A.
Substituting Eqs. (6), (8), (12), (15), (16), and (17) into Eq. (11), the strain energy is written by

1 T 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
U¼ p K 1 p þ pT K 2 r þ pT K 3 s þ r T K T2 p þ rT K 4 r þ r T K 5 s þ sT K T3 p þ sT K T5 r þ sT K 6 s; ð20Þ
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
where K1, K2, . . ., K6 are the modal stiffness matrices which are also presented in Appendix A.
Substituting Eqs. (14)–(17) into Eq. (13), the virtual work is expressed as
dW ¼ q1 F q1 dp þ q2 F q2 dr þ q3 F q3 ds; ð21Þ
where Fq1, Fq2 and Fq3 are the forcing matrices which are also given in Appendix A.
Substituting Eqs. (19)–(21) into Eq. (9) and performing the variation operation in terms of p, r and s, the equations of mo-
tion of the conical shell can be obtained as
2
d p
M1 þ K 1 p þ K 2 r þ K 3 s ¼ F Tq1 q1 ; ð22Þ
dt 2
2
d r
M 2 2 þ K T2 p þ K 4 r þ K 5 s ¼ F Tq2 q2 ; ð23Þ
dt
2
d s
M 3 2 þ K T3 p þ K T5 r þ K 6 s ¼ F Tq3 q3 : ð24Þ
dt
Rearranging the generalized coordinates p, r and s as
T
X ¼ ½ pT rT sT  ; ð25Þ

then Eqs. (22)–(24) can be integrated as

2
d X
Mt þ KtX ¼ Q ; ð26Þ
dt 2
where Mt, Kt and Q are the generalized mass matrix, stiffness matrix and forcing matrix and written by
2 3 2 3
M1 0 0 K1 K2 K3
6 7 6 T K5 7
Mt ¼ 4 0 M2 0 5; Kt ¼ 4 K2 K4 5; Q ¼ ½ F q1 q1 F q2 q2 F q3 q3 T : ð27Þ
0 0 M3 K T3 K T5 K6

The general solution of the homogeneous differential equation of Eq. (26) can be expressed as

XðtÞ ¼ X 0 ekt ; ð28Þ

 F.-M. Li et al. / Mechanics Research Communications 36 (2009) 595–602 599

where X0 is the eigenvector and k is the eigenvalue. Substituting Eq. (28) into the homogeneous differential equation of Eq.
(26) leads to the following eigenvalue problem:

ðM t k2 þ K t ÞX 0 ¼ 0; ð29Þ
from which the eigenvectors and eigenvalues can be obtained. The imaginary parts of the eigenvalues are the natural fre-
quencies of the conical shell.
In order to solve Eq. (26), we must present the formulations of the principal mode shapes U, V and W in Eqs. (15)–(17).
Some types of vibration mode shapes of conical shells have been applied. For example, Liew et al. (2005) employed the kernel
particle functions in hybridized form with harmonic functions to approximate the vibration modes. Lam and Li (1999) and Li
(2000) employed a kind of displacement formulations of conical shells which are similar to those of cylindrical shells (Soedel,
1981). In their study, however, the displacement field has been expressed as the single term of trigonometric function, which
can actually be regarded as a specific principal vibration, i.e. the vibration (m, n). In practice, when a structure is motivated
by arbitrary external forces, any principal vibration may be motivated. The displacement field should be expressed as the
superposition of all the principal vibrations (Soedel, 1981; Shabana, 1997; Clough and Penzien, 1993). So the displacements
of conical shells can be written by Eqs. (15)–(17). In this paper, the vibration modes of conical shells similar to those of cylin-
drical shells (Soedel, 1981) are used.
In the curvilinear surface coordinates O-nfg as shown in Fig. 1a, the principal mode shapes of conical shells with S-S
boundaries can be expressed as
     
ipðn  l0 Þ ipðn  l0 Þ ipðn  l0 Þ
U ij ðn; fÞ ¼ cos cosðjfÞ; V ij ðn; fÞ ¼ sin sinðjfÞ; W ij ðn; fÞ ¼ sin cosðjfÞ;
l  l0 l  l0 l  l0
i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; m; j ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; n; ð30Þ
where i and j are the wave numbers in the meridional and circumferential directions.
For simply supported conical shells, the boundary conditions at both ends can be written as
v ðl0 ; f; tÞ ¼ v ðl; f; tÞ ¼ 0; wðl0 ; f; tÞ ¼ wðl; f; tÞ ¼ 0; ð31Þ
N11 ðl0 ; f; tÞ ¼ N11 ðl; f; tÞ ¼ 0; M 11 ðl0 ; f; tÞ ¼ M 11 ðl; f; tÞ ¼ 0; ð32Þ
where N11 and M11 are the force and bending moment per unit length of neutral surface. They are given by
Z h=2 Z h=2
N11 ¼ r11 dg; M11 ¼ r11 gdg; ð33Þ
h=2 h=2

where h is the thickness of the shell. Substituting r11 from Eq. (8) into Eq. (33), then Eq. (32) is changed as
  
@u 1 @v u w
N11 ¼ K þl þ þ ¼ 0; at n ¼ l0 ; l;
@n n sin a0 @f n n tan a0
" !#
@2w 1 @v 1 @ 2 w 1 @w
M11 ¼D  2 þl 2   ¼ 0; at n ¼ l0 ; l; ð34Þ
@n n sin a0 tan a0 @f n2 sin2 a0 @f2 n @n
3
where K ¼ Eh=ð1  l2 Þ and D ¼ Eh =½12ð1  l2 Þ are the membrane stiffness and bending stiffness.
It is seen from Eqs. (30) and (31) that the principal mode shapes of conical shells satisfy accurately the geometric bound-
ary conditions for the S-S boundaries. For the force boundary conditions, from Eqs. (30) and (34), it is observed that there are
two terms which can not be satisfied to be zero. Namely, the force boundary conditions should be expressed as the following
formulations:
u 1 @w
N11 ¼ K l ; M11 ¼ Dl ; at n ¼ l0 ; l; ð35Þ
n n @n
which are not satisfied to be exactly zero for the principal mode shapes, Eq. (30), at the two boundaries.
But for thin shells with small deformation, un and 1n @w@n
are also smaller for n = l0 and l. Especially, when the conical shell is
not subjected to forces along n direction, i.e. q1 = 0, the displacement u can also be neglected. So based on the above analysis,
we see that the mode shapes, Eq. (30), satisfies approximately the force boundary conditions for the S-S boundaries. How-
ever, the mode shapes given by Eq. (30) are very simple in form and convenient in implementation in engineering.
The distributed loads are assumed to be harmonic and written by
q1 ðn; f; tÞ ¼ q10 sinxt; q2 ðn; f; tÞ ¼ q20 sinxt; q3 ðn; f; tÞ ¼ q30 sinxt; ð36Þ
where q10, q20 and q30 are the amplitudes and x is the frequency of the dynamic loads. Under the application of the external
dynamic loads, the steady state solution of Eq. (26) can be written as
X i ðtÞ ¼ Ai sin xt; i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; 3mn; ð37Þ
where Ai is the amplitude to be determined. Substituting Eq. (37) into Eq. (26) results in

ðK t  x2 M t ÞA ¼ Q 0 ; ð38Þ
600 F.-M. Li et al. / Mechanics Research Communications 36 (2009) 595–602

where A ¼ ½A1 ; A2 ; :::; A3mn T and Q 0 ¼ ½F q1 q10 ; F q2 q20 ; F q3 q30 T . By solving Eq. (38), the amplitudes Ai of Xi(t) can be determined.
Then, from Eqs. (15)–(17), (25), (30), (37), the steady state responses of the conical shell can be finally obtained.

3. Numerical simulations and discussions

3.1. Validation of the present method

In order to validate the present methodology, comparisons with the results available in the open literature are made. In
the numerical calculations, the non-dimensional frequency parameter is defined as (Lam and Li, 1999; Liew et al., 2005; Irie
et al., 1984)

Table 1
Comparisons of frequency parameter f for the conical shell with S-S boundaries (m = 1).

n a0 = 30° a0 = 45° a0 = 60°

Irie et al. (1984) Lam and Li (1999) Present Irie et al. (1984) Lam and Li (1999) Present Irie et al. (1984) Lam and Li (1999) Present
2 0.7910 0.8420 0.8431 0.6879 0.7655 0.7642 0.5722 0.6348 0.6342
3 0.7284 0.7376 0.7416 0.6973 0.7212 0.7211 0.6001 0.6238 0.6236
4 0.6352 0.6362 0.6419 0.6664 0.6739 0.6747 0.6054 0.6145 0.6146
5 0.5531 0.5528 0.5590 0.6304 0.6323 0.6336 0.6077 0.6111 0.6113
6 0.4949 0.4950 0.5008 0.6032 0.6035 0.6049 0.6159 0.6171 0.6172
7 0.4653 0.4661 0.4701 0.5918 0.5921 0.5928 0.6343 0.6350 0.6347
8 0.4645 0.4660 0.4687 0.5992 0.6001 0.6005 0.6650 0.6660 0.6653

Fig. 2. The amplitudes of the displacements in the n, f and g directions at the position (l0 + s/2, p/4) of the neutral surface of conical shell varying with the
frequency x of the dynamical loads. (a) In the n direction; (b) in the f direction; (c) in the g direction.
 F.-M. Li et al. / Mechanics Research Communications 36 (2009) 595–602 601

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
f ¼ x0 a2 qð1  l2 Þ=E; ð39Þ

where x0 is the natural frequency of the conical shell in radians per second. The conical shell is aluminum whose modulus of
elasticity E = 70 GPa, mass density q = 2710 kg/m3 and Poisson’s ratio l = 0.3. The structural parameters are h = 0.004 m, h/
a2 = 0.01, (l  l0)sin a0/a2 = 0.25. For the case of the meridional wave number m = 1 and semi-vertex cone angle a0 = 30°, 45°
and 60°, the frequency parameters calculated by Eq. (39) are listed in Table 1 for different circumferential wave numbers.
The corresponding results by Lam and Li (1999) and Irie et al. (1984) are also listed in Table 1. From (Table 1) we can see
that the frequency parameters obtained by the present method are in good agreement with those in the open literature,
which verifies the validity of the present analytical method. And the principal mode shapes expressed by Eq. (30) can be used
for the conical shells with two simply supported boundaries.

3.2. The forced vibration responses

The forced vibration responses of conical shell with two simply supported boundaries are calculated. The parameters of
the conical shell model are the same as those used in Section 3.1. The semi-vertex cone angle is a0 = 30°. The position coor-
dinates of the conical shell in the curvilinear surface coordinates O-nfg are l0 = 0.6 m and l = 0.8 m. So the length of the con-
ical shell is s = l  l0 = 0.2 m. The radii at the two ends are a1 = 0.3 m and a2 = 0.4 m. The amplitudes q10, q20 and q30 of the
external dynamic loads are all set to be 1.0 MPa. In the calculation, m and n in Eqs. (15)–(17) are all set to be 3.
The amplitudes of the displacements in the n, f and g directions at position (l0 + s/2, p/4) of the neutral surface of conical
shell varying with the frequency x (Hz) of external dynamic loads are shown in Fig. 2. It is seen from Fig. 2 that there exist
some peak values of the displacements in the frequency-response curves, which correspond to the resonant responses of the
conical shell under the external dynamic loads.

4. Conclusions

In this paper, Hamilton’s principle with the Rayleigh–Ritz method is used to derive the equation of motion of the conical
shell. A set of simpler principal vibration modes of the conical shell are presented. By solving the eigenvalue problem of the
equation of motion, the natural frequencies of the conical shell are obtained. By solving the equation of motion, the steady
responses of forced vibration are gotten. Numerical comparisons with the results in the open literature are made to verify the
validity of the present method. And the forced vibration responses of conical shell varying with the external dynamical loads
are calculated. This method can also be used for other kinds of boundary conditions of the conical shell. By means of the
present analytical method, we can further study the structural vibration control in the conical shells.

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the supports provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.
10672017 for this work. Feng-Ming Li also acknowledges the supports provided by the China Postdoctoral Science Founda-
tion, Heilongjiang Province Postdoctoral Science Foundation and the support provided by Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science (JSPS).

Appendix A. The expressions of the modal mass, modal stiffness and forcing matrices in Eqs. (19)–(21) are given by

Z 2p Z l Z 2p Z l
M 1 ¼ qh sin a0 UU T ndndf; M 2 ¼ qh sin a0 VV T ndndf;
0 l0 0 l0
Z 2p Z l
M 3 ¼ qh sin a0 WW T ndndf;
0 l0
Z Z !
Ehsina0 2p l @U @U T T1 @U T @U T
K1 ¼ n þ UU þ l U þ lU dndf
1  l2 0 l0 @n @n n @n @n
Z 2p Z l
Gh @U @U T 1
þ dndf;
sina0 0 l0 @f @f n
Z 2p Z l !
Eh @V T 1 @U @V T
K2 ¼ U þ l dndf
1  l2 0 l0 @f n @n @f
Z 2p Z l !
@U @V T @U T 1
þ Gh  V dndf;
0 l0 @f @n @f n
Z Z  
Ehcosa0 2p l T1 @U T
K3 ¼ UW þ l W dndf;
1  l2 0 l0 n @n
602 F.-M. Li et al. / Mechanics Research Communications 36 (2009) 595–602

Z 2p Z l " 2
#
Eh 1 @V @V T 1 h @V @V T 1
K4 ¼ þ dndf
1  l2 sina0 0 l0 @f @f n 12tan2 a0 @f @f n3
Z 2p Z l !
@V @V T T1 @V T @V T
þ Ghsina0 nþVV  V V dndf
0 l0 @n @n n @n @n
Z Z "
Ghsina0 2p l T1 2 1 @V @V T 1
þ VV þ h
tan2 a0 0 l0 n 12 @n @n n
!#
T
1 T 1 1 @V T 1 1 @V 1
þ VV 3  V 2 V dndf;
3 n 6 @n n 6 @n n2
Z 2p Z l
Eh 1 @V W T
K5 ¼ dndf
1  l2 tana0 0 l0 @f n
Z 2p Z l !
3
Eh @V @W T 1 @V @ 2 W T 1 1 @V @ 2 W T 1
 þ l þ dndf
12ð1  l2 Þtana0 0 l0 @f @n n2 @f @n2 n sin2 a0 @f @f2 n3
Z 2p Z l !
3
Gh @V @W T 1 @V @ 2 W T 1 2V @ 2 W T 2V @W T
þ  þ  3 dndf;
6tana0 0 l0 @n @f n2 @n @n@f n n2 @n@f n @f
3 Z 2p Z l !
Eh sina0 @2W @2W T @W @W T 1 @ 2 W @W T @W @ 2 W T
K6 ¼ nþ þl þl dndf
12ð1  l2 Þ 0 l0 @n2 @n2 @n @n n @n2 @n @n @n2
3 Z 2p Z l
Eh 1 @2W @2W T 1 @2W @2W T 1 @2W @2W T 1
þ þ l þ l
12ð1  l2 Þsina0 0 l0
2
sin a0 @f
2
@f2 n3 @n2 @f2 n @f2 @n2 n
! Z Z
2p
@ 2 W @W T 1 @W @ 2 W T 1 Eh sina0 l
WW T
þ þ dndf þ dndf
@f 2 @n n 2 @n 2
@f n 2 1  l2 2
tan a0 0 l0 n
Z 2p Z l !
3
Gh @2W @2W T @W @W T 1 @ 2 W @W T @W @ 2 W T 1
þ nþ   dndf;
3sina0 0 l0 @n@f @n@f @f @f n @n@f @f @f @n@f n2
Z 2p Z l Z 2p Z l Z 2p Z l
F q1 ¼ sina0 U T ndndf; F q2 ¼ sina0 V T ndndf; F q3 ¼ sina0 W T ndndf: ð40Þ
0 l0 0 l0 0 l0

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