THE EFFECTS OF LARGE VIBRATION AMPLITUDES ON THE MODE SHAPES AND NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF THIN ELASTIC SHELLS. PART II: A NEW APPROACH FOR FREE TRANSVERSE CONSTRAINED VIBRATION OF CYLINDRICAL SHELLS

The non-linear dynamic behaviour of infinitely long circular cylindrical shells in the case of plane strains is examined and results are compared with previous studies. A theoretical model based on Hamilton's principle and spectral analysis previously developed for non-linear vibration of thin straight structures (beams and plates) is extended here to shell-type structures, reducing the large-amplitude free vibration problem to the solution of a set of non-linear algebraic equations. In the present work, the transverse displacement is assumed to be harmonic and is expanded in the form of a finite series of functions corresponding to the constrained vibrations, which exclude the axisymmetric displacements. The non-linear strain energy is expressed by taking into account the non-linear terms due to the considerable stretching of the shell middle surface induced by large deflections. It has been shown that the model presented here gives new results for infinitely long circular cylindrical shells and can lead to a good approximation for determining the fundamental longitudinal mode shape and the associated higher circumferencial mode shapes (n>3) of simply supported circular cylindrical shells of finite length. The non-linear results at small vibration amplitudes are compared with linear experimental and theoretical results obtained by several authors for simply supported shells. Numerical results (non-linear frequencies, vibration amplitudes and basic function contributions) of infinite shells associated to the first four mode shapes of free vibrations, are obtained, using a multi-mode approach and are summarized in tables. Good agreement is found with results from previous studies for both small and large amplitudes of vibration. The non-linear mode shapes are plotted and discussed for different thickness to radius ratios. The distributions of the bending stresses associated with the mode shapes are given and compared with those obtained via the linear theory.