I want to study the influence of hygrothermal load on the natural frequencies and mode shapes of laminated composite shell panels.

The SHELL281 element in the ANSYS element library supports temperature loads. I am currently applying temperature as a body force on the plate, performing a static analysis to get a thermal pre-stresed state and subsequently performing modal analysis (on the pre-stressed state) to observe the effect of temperature on free vibration response.

Now, what I want to do is to apply the moisture (hygro) concentration to the plate and observe its effect on the natural frequency. Unfortunately, the SHELL281 doesn't support the mositure loading. I found SOLID226 element supports the coupled structural-thermal-diffusion analysis. However, it has only three structural degress of freedom (Ux, Uy, Uz only) rendering it ineffective for bending and vibration analysis.

Later on, I would like to study the influence of combined hygro-thermal loading on the free vibration responses of plates.

I would be extremely grateful if anyone could throw some light on how to apply moisture (and combined thermal-moisture) loading on the panels or any other alternative way of achieving this goal.

Thanks in advance!

Warm regards,

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