Study on free vibration analysis of circular cylindrical shells using wave propagation

A wave propagation approach is presented for free vibration analysis of circular cylindrical shell, based on Flügge classical thin shell theory. The validity and accuracy of the wave approach is studied in detail, including aspects of frequencies, vibration shapes and wavenumbers. An exact solution for free vibration of circular cylindrical shell is also given in the present analysis. For the comparisons of these two approaches for natural frequencies, vibration shape of a shell are discussed for shear diaphragm–shear diaphragm (SD–SD), clamped–clamped (C–C) and clamped–shear diaphragm (C–SD) boundary conditions. The results show that wave propagation has high accuracy for long shell and SD–SD boundary conditions.