AN EXPLICIT METHOD FOR THE FREE-VIBRATIONS OF NONCIRCULAR CYLINDRICALPANELS

A method is presented for the determination of the dynamic characteris tics of non circular cylindrical panels, based on Flugge or Donnell ty pe theories. The panels are simply supported along the curved edges, w hile at the straight edges they are supported by any type of admissibl e boundary conditions. The components of displacements are expanded in Fourier series in the axial direction and power series in the circumf erential direction. The solution is determined by employing a recursiv e scheme in conjunction with the method of successive approximations. This approach leads to a characteristic equation in which the non-dime nsional frequency appears in explicit form. The method is applied to c atenary cylindrical panels. Numerical results are presented which desc ribe the variation of the non-dimensional frequencies with respect to the geometric parameters. A comparison with circular panels is present ed for different types of boundary conditions. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited