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This book focuses on the free vibrations of graphite-epoxy laminated composite stiffened shells with cutout both in terms of the natural frequencies and mode shapes. The dynamic analysis of shell structures, which may have complex geometry and arbitrary loading and boundary conditions, is solved efficiently by the finite element method, even including cutouts in shells. The results may be readily used by practicing engineers dealing with stiffened composite shells with cutouts. Several shell forms viz. cylindrical shell, hypar shell, conoidal shell, spherical shell, saddle shell, hyperbolic paraboloidal shell and elliptic paraboloidal shell are considered in the book. The dynamic characteristics of stiffened composite shells with cutout are described in terms of the natural frequency and mode shapes. The size of the cutouts and their positions with respect to the shell centre are varied for different edge constraints of cross-ply and angle-ply laminated composite shells. The effects of these parametric variations on the fundamental frequencies and mode shapes are considered in detail. The information regarding the behavior of stiffened shells with cutouts for a wide spectrum of eccentricity and boundary conditions for cross ply and angle ply shells may be used as design aids for structural engineers. The book is a significant contribution to the existing literature from the point of view of both industrial importance and academic interest.

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Chapter 1. Fundamental Consideration.- Chapter 2. Stiffened Cylindrical Shell with Cutout.- Chapter 3. Stiffened Hypar Shell with Cutout.- Chapter 4. Stiffened Conoidal Shell with Cutout.- Chapter 5. Stiffened Spherical Shell with Cutout.- Chapter 6. Stiffened Saddle Shell with Cutout.- Chapter 7. Stiffened Hyperbolic Paraboloid Shell with Cutout.- Chapter 8. Stiffened Elliptic Paraboloid Shell with Cutout.

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Dr. Sarmila Sahoo received her Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering) from Bengal Engineering College (D.U.), Shibpur (presently, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur), Master of Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering) from Jadavpur University and Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) from Jadavpur University. A national scholarship holder throughout career, she was the recipient of GATE fellowship from MHRD and Senior Research Fellowship from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt. of India. She has worked in Design and Development Unit at Conveyor and Ropeway Services Pvt. Ltd. She has earlier taught Civil Engineering at Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology, Kolkata. Presently she is working as Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata. Her research interests are finite elements method, vibration of plates and shells, composite materials. She is actively engaged in research and currently supervising a number of research students for their doctoral thesis. She has published over 40 research articles in international journals and conference proceedings. She is associated with the editorial and review board of a number of international journals. She is a member of the International Association of Engineers.

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