Abstract：Based upon the Reissner’s thin shell theory, the free vibration of the joined conical-cylindrical-spherical shell with different boundary conditions was analyzed with a domain decomposition method. The joined shell was first divided into independent conical, cylindrical and spherical shell substructures along the junctions, and then these substructures were further decomposed into smaller shell segments along the axis of revolution. The constraint equations derived from interface continuity conditions between two adjacent shell segments (including boundary conditions) were introduced into the energy functional of the joined shell via a modified generalized variational principle and least-squares weighted residual method. The Fourier series and Chebyshev orthogonal polynomial were employed as the admissible displacement functions for each shell segment in order to obtain the discretized equations of motion of the joined shell. The natural frequencies were calculated and compared with those derived from the finite element software ANSYS to confirm the reliability and accuracy of the analytical solution. Finally, the influence of the length-to-radius ratio and the thickness-to-radius ratio on the free vibrational behavior of the joined shell structure was investigated.
2013, Vol. 32 
