FREE-VIBRATION OF SPECIALLY ORTHOTROPIC, MULTILAYERED, THIN CYLINDRICAL-SHELLS WITH VARIOUS END CONDITIONS

The dynamic response of multilayered, specially orthotropic, thin, circular cylindrical shells is analyzed using Love's first-approximation shell theory by the use of Rayleigh-Ritz variational procedure. A powerful tool is developed to calculate the natural frequencies for a variety of shell end conditions - clamped-free, clamped-supported, clamped-clamped, etc. - unlike most existing works, which are confined mainly to simply supported end conditions. The influence of various boundary conditions on the modal behavior of a cylindrical shell is studied, and natural frequency calculations are established for a wide domain of shell geometries, using an appropriate dimensionless shell-geometrical parameter. The results of the present analysis are shown to compare very well with some available experimental results, in the case of an isotropic cylinder. Graphical illustrations of the results corresponding to the cases of various shell-geometrical and material parameters are provided for various end conditions.