On the Free Vibration Behavior of Cylindrical Shell Structures

Shell structures, especially cylindrical shells, are widely used in aerospace and naval architectural industries. Submarine hulls and aircraft bodies can be idealized as cylindrical shell structures. The study of vibrations of cylindrical shells is an important aspect in the successful applications of the cylindrical shells. The free vibration characteristics of a submarine hull have an important influence on the noise signature of the submarine. That makes the free vibration problem of the submarine hull a particular interest for the submarine community. The natural frequencies of cylindrical shells are clustered in a very narrow band and they are thus more prone to becoming involved in resonant vibrations. The determination and control of these frequencies is significant to manage the acoustic signature of the submarine. This thesis focuses on the free vibration characteristics of stiffened and unstiffened cylindrical shells. The analysis is carried out mainly in two parts. First, the unstiffened cylindrical shell is modeled and the free vibration problem is analyzed as the shell thickness decreases. Then the cylindrical shell is stiffened with ring stiffeners and the free vibration problem of the stiffened cylindrical shell is studied. The vibration modes of the unstiffened cylindrical shell are studied for four shells with different thicknesses. Initial tensile and compressive membrane stresses are applied separately to the shells to study the effect of the initial stresses on the free vibration modes. The vibration modes of the stiffened cylindrical shell are studied in two steps. First, the influence of the positions of two ring stiffeners on the fundamental frequencies is studied; second, the free vibration modes of the stiffened cylindrical shell are studied. Two cylindrical shells with different thicknesses are used and they are stiffened with different numbers of ring stiffeners, which are uniformly distributed along the longitudinal axis of the shell. The results are compared with available analytical results and finite element solutions of similar problems from the literature. Thesis Supervisor: Klaus-Jürgen Bathe Title: Professor of Mechanical Engineering