FREE-VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF SHELLS OF REVOLUTION

An efficient substructuring analysis method is presented for predictin g the natural frequencies of shells of revolution which may have arbit rary shape of meridian, general type of material property and any kind of boundary condition. This method is developed in the context of fir st order shear deformation shell theory as well as the classical thin shell theory. The vibrational behaviours of a circular cylinder, an el liptic hyperboloid shell (modelling a cooling tower) and a complete sp herical shell are investigated using this method. (C) 1998 Academic Pr ess Limited.