Frequency characteristics of a thin rotating cylindrical shell using the generalized differential quadrature method

In this paper, the generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method is used for the first time to study the effects of boundary conditions on the frequency characteristics of a thin rotating cylindrical shell. The present analysis is based on Love-type shell theory and the governing equations of motion include the effects of initial hoop tension and the centrifugal and coriolis accelerations due to rotation. The displacement field is expressed as a product of unknown smooth continuous functions in the meridional direction and trigonometric functions along the circumferential direction so that the three-dimensional dynamic problem may be transformed mathematically into a one-dimensional problem. Based on this approach, the results are obtained for the effects of the boundary conditions on the frequency characteristics at different circumferential wave numbers and rotating speeds and various geometric properties; the effect of rotating speed on the relationship between frequency parameter and circumferential wave number is also discussed. To validate the accuracy and efficiency of the GDQ method, the results obtained are compared with those in the literature and very good agreement is achieved. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.