ON THE FREE VIBRATION OF A SUBMERGED FGM HOLLOW SPHERE

The free vibration of a functionally graded material hollow sphere submerged in a compressible fluid medium is exactly analyzed. The sphere is assumed to be spherically isotropic with material constants being inhomogeneous along the radial direction. By employing a separation technique as well as the spherical harmonics expansion method, the governing equations are simplified to an uncoupled second-order ordinary differential equation, and a coupled system of two such equations. Solutions to these equations are given when the elastic constants and the mass density are power functions of the radial coordinate. Numerical examples are finally given to show the effect of the material gradient on the natural frequencies. The project is supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China(No. 19872060).