Free vibration and buckling analysis of composite laminated shells using the refined zigzag theory

In this study, a new composite laminated shell model is proposed for free vibration and stability analysis based on the refined zigzag theory (RZT). In contrast to the published shell models based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), piecewise-linear zigzag functions are utilized to provide a more realistic representation of deformation states of a transverse shear-flexible shell. In the present formulation, the governing equations and boundary conditions of composite laminated shells are established by d’Alembert’s principle to obtain natural frequencies and critical buckling loadings. In order to evaluate the effectiveness and performance of the present new model for composite laminated shells, examples of free vibration and buckling analysis are carried out for cylindrical and spherical shells involving different lamination schemes and design parameters. The results are compared with the three dimensional (3D) exact, first-order and some high-order solutions in the literature. Numerical results show that the present model not only has high accuracy but also has superior computational efficiency in comparison with high-order models, such that it may show a great potential in engineering applications