JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS-ASCE, vol.125, no.6, pp.630-636, 1999 (SCI-Expanded)
A parametric study is performed to investigate influences of the opening angles, the slenderness ratios, the material types, the boundary conditions, and the thickness-to-width ratios of the cross section on the in-plane natural frequencies of symmetric cross-ply laminated circular composite beams. Governing equations are obtained based on the classical beam theory. The transfer matrix method is successfully applied to calculate exact natural frequencies with the help of an effective numerical algorithm, which was previously used for isotropic materials. The effects of the shear deformation, the axial deformation, and the rotary inertia are included in the formulation based on the first-order shear deformation theory. The physical system is considered as a continuous system. To verify the present theory, two examples are worked out for straight beams. A quite good agreement is observed with the reported results.