Chebyshev collocation technique for vibration analysis of sandwich cylindrical shells with metal foam core

Abstract In this paper, we present vibration analysis of a metal foam core sandwich cylindrical thin shell via the Chebyshev collocation method. Three types of metal foam core are taken into account. The governing equations are derived using Hamilton's principle and the Kirchhoff‐Love shell theory. Then, the Chebyshev collocation method is developed to evaluate natural frequencies of the metal foam core sandwich cylindrical shell under various boundary conditions. Results show that the Chebyshev collocation method possesses high accuracy. Moreover, the Sym‐1 metal foam core leads to the largest stiffness of the shell while the Sym‐2 metal foam core leads to the smallest stiffness. The effects of porosity coefficient and core thickness are also highlighted on the vibration characteristics of the metal foam core sandwich cylindrical shell.