Wave propagation in circular cylindrical shells with periodic axial curvature

The propagation of longitudinal and flexural waves in axisymmetric circular cylindrical shells with periodic circular axial curvature is studied using a finite element method previously developed by the authors. Of primary interest is the coupling of these wave modes due to the periodic axial curvature which results in the generation of two types of stop bands not present in straight circular cylinders. The first type is related to the periodic spacing and occurs independently for longitudinal and flexural wave modes without coupling. However, the second type is caused by longitudinal and flexural wave mode coupling due to the axial curvature. A parametric study is conducted where the effects of cylinder radius, degree of axial curvature, and periodic spacing on wave propagation characteristics are investigated. It is shown that even a small degree of periodic axial curvature results in significant stop bands associated with wave mode coupling. These stop bands are broad and conceivably could be tuned to a specific frequency range by judicious choice of the shell parameters. Forced harmonic analyses performed on finite periodic structures show that strong attenuation of longitudinal and flexural motion occurs in the frequency ranges associated with the stop bands of the infinite periodic structure.