Effect of ring stiffeners on vibration of cylindrical and conical shell models

Studies are reported of conical shell models with and without circumferential ring stiffeners, by both theoretical and experimental methods, for the purpose of determining the effects of stiffeners on vibration. An axisymmetric conical shell finite element was used for the theoretical analysis and a holographic interferometry technique for the experimental study. In the former, the stiffeners are modelled as shell elements, branching from the main shell at the stiffener locations: This is called the Übranched shell approachÝ. The theoretical values of the natural frequencies and the mode shape plots show good agreement with the experimental results. © 1995 Academic Press Ltd.