Purpose <p>Effect of rotational load is studied on the vibration responses of a composite shell reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets based on shear deformation theory. The shell is reinforced with GNPs in various distributions.</p> Methods <p>The motion equations are derived using Hamilton’s principle. The constitutive relations are developed in three dimensional coordinate after determination of effective material properties based on Halpin–Tsai micromechanical model and rule of mixture. The governing equations of motion are solved for various types of boundary conditions using Galerkin’s approach through using admissible functions to satisfy required boundary conditions.</p> Results <p>The effect of main parameters such as composition of reinforcement, angular velocity and geometric parameters are investigated on the dynamic results. A comprehensive comparative investigation is performed before presentation of the complete numerical results.</p> Conclusions <p>Comparison between various distributions of graphene nanoplatelets reinforcement indicates that FG-X and FG-O reflects maximum and minimum stiffness and natural frequencies, respectively. Furthermore, an increase in angular velocity yields a softer rotating cylinder with lower natural frequencies.</p>