Dynamics of the geometrically non-linear analysis of anisotropic laminated cylindrical shells

A general approach, based on shearable shell theory, to predict the influence of geometric non-linearities on the natural frequencies of an elastic anisotropic laminated cylindrical shell incorporating large displacements and rotations is presented in this paper. The effects of shear deformations and rotary inertia are taken into account in the equations of motion. The hybrid finite element approach and shearable shell theory are used to determine the shape function matrix. The analytical solution is divided into two parts. In part one, the displacement functions are obtained by the exact solution of the equilibrium equations of a cylindrical shell based on shearable shell theory instead of the usually used and more arbitrary interpolating polynomials. The mass and linear stiffness matrices are derived by exact analytical integration. In part two, the modal coefficients are obtained, using Green's exact strain-displacement relations, for these displacement functions. The second- and third-order non-linear stiffness matrices are then calculated by precise analytical integration and superimposed on the linear part of equations to establish the non-linear modal equations. Comparison with available results is satisfactorily good.