Experimental and finite element studies on free vibration of cylindrical skew panels

The present paper deals with experimental and finite element studies carried out on free vibration of isotropic and laminated composite cylindrical skew panels. Natural frequencies were determined using CQUAD8 finite element of MSC Nastran, and comparison was made between the experimental values and the finite element solution. Effects of the skew angle and aspect ratio on the natural frequencies of isotropic cylindrical skew panels were studied. The effects of skew angle, aspect ratio, fiber orientation angle, and laminate stacking sequence (keeping total number of layers in the laminate constant) on the natural frequencies of antisymmetric laminated composite cylindrical skew panels were also studied. The experimental values of the first, second, and third natural frequencies are in good agreement with the finite element solution for both isotropic and laminated composite cylindrical panels. The first, second, and third natural frequencies are found to decrease with the increase in the aspect ratio for both isotropic and laminated composite cylindrical panels.