EXACT PIEZOELASTIC SOLUTION OF SIMPLY-SUPPORTED ORTHOTROPIC CIRCULAR CYLINDRICAL PANEL IN CYLINDRICAL BENDING

This work presents an exact piezoelastic solution of an infinitely lon g, simply-supported, orthotropic, piezoelectric, radially polarised, c ircular cylindrical shell panel in cylindrical bending under pressure and electrostatic excitation. The general solution of the governing di fferential equations is obtained by separation of variables. The displ acements and electric potential are expanded in appropriate trigonomet ric Fourier series in the circumferential coordinate to satisfy the bo undary conditions at the simply-supported longitudinal edges. The gove rning equations reduce to Euler-Cauchy type of ordinary differential e quations. Their general solution involves six constants for each Fouri er component. These are solved from the algebraic equations obtained b y satisfying the boundary conditions al the lateral surfaces. The solu tion of the inverse problem of inferring the applied pressure field fr om the given measured distribution of electrical potential difference between the lateral surfaces of the shell has also been presented. Num erical results are presented for typical pressure and electrostatic lo adings for various values of radius to thickness ratio. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.