DISTRIBUTED TRANSFER-FUNCTION METHOD FOR ANALYSIS OF CYLINDRICAL-SHELLS

A distributed transfer function method for static and dynamic analysis of general cylindrical shells is proposed. The distributed transfer f unctions of a cylindrical shell, the Laplace transforms of the shell G reen's functions, are first derived. Stepped shells composed of a fini te number of serially connected shell segments are then synthesized us ing these transfer functions. In this formulation, exact and closed-fo rm solutions for various static and dynamic problems of cylindrical sh ells under arbitrary boundary conditions and external loads are obtain ed. Numerical examples are provided to show the efficiency and flexibi lity of the transfer function method.