Free vibration analysis of Double Curvature Thin Walled Structures by a B-Spline Finite Element Approach

This paper presents a free vibration analysis of general double curvature shell structures using B-spline shape functions and a refinement technique. The shell formulation is developed following the well known Ahmad degenerate approach including the effect of the shear deformation. The formulation is not isoparametric, as a consequence the assumed displacement field is described through non-uniform B-spline functions of any degree. A solution refinement technique is considered by means of a high continuity p-method approach. The eigensolution of a plate, and of single and double curvature shells are obtained by numerical simulation to test the performance of the approach. Solutions are compared with other available analytical and numerical solutions, and discussion follows.