This paper presents exact free vibration analysis of stress free (or rigidly fixed), thermally insulated (or isothermal), transradially isotropic thermoelastic hollow sphere in context of generalized (non-classical) theory of thermoelasticity. The basic governing equations of linear generalized thermoelastic transradially isotropic hollow sphere have been uncoupled and simplified with the help of potential functions by using the Helmholtz decomposition theorem. Upon using it the coupled system of equations reduced to ordinary differential equations in radial coordinate. Matrix Frobenius method of extended series has been used to investigate the motion along the radial coordinate. The secular equations for the existence of possible modes of vibrations in the considered sphere are derived. The special cases of spheroidal (S-mode) and toroidal (T-mode) vibrations of a hollow sphere have also been deduced and discussed. The toroidal motion gets decoupled from the spheroidal one and remains independent of the both, thermal variations and thermal relaxation time. In order to illustrate the analytic results, the numerical solution of the secular equation which governs spheroidal motion (S-modes) is carried out to compute lowest frequencies of vibrational modes in case of classical (CT) and non-classical (LS, GL) theories of thermoelasticity with the help of MATLAB programming for the generalized hollow sphere of helium and magnesium materials. The computer simulated results have been presented graphically showing lowest frequency and dissipation factor. The analysis may find applications in engineering industries where spherical structures are in frequent use.
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