free vibration of laminated composite hypar shell roofs with cutouts

Use of laminated composites in civil engineering structural components including shell roofs is increasing day by day due to their light weight, high specific strength, and stiffness properties. In the present paper, laminated composite hypar shell (hyperbolic paraboloidal shells bounded by straight edges) roofs with cutouts are analyzed for their free vibration characteristics using finite element method. An eight-noded curved shell element is used for modeling the shell. Specific numerical problems of earlier investigators are solved to compare their results with the present formulation. A number of problems are further solved where the size of the cutouts and their positions with respect to the shell centre are varied for different edge constraints. The results are furnished in the form of figures and tables. The results are examined thoroughly to arrive at some meaningful conclusions useful to designers.