An Exact Dynamic Stiffness Formulation for Predicting Natural Frequencies of Moderately Thick Shells of Revolution

An exact dynamic stiffness formulation is proposed for calculating the natural frequencies of shells of revolution based on the first-order Reissner-Mindlin theory. Equations of motion are reduced to be one-dimensional, should the circumferential wave number is specified, and then are rewritten in Hamilton form. Therefore, a shell of revolution with a moderate thickness is analysed as a special skeletal structure with five degrees of freedom at element ends. Dynamic stiffnesses are constructed directly from the one-dimensional governing vibration equations using classic skeletal theory. Number of natural frequencies below a specific value is counted by applying the Wittrick-Williams (W-W) algorithm, and exact eigenvalues can be simply obtained using bisection method. A solution to the number of clamped-end frequencies J0 in the W-W algorithm is also proposed and proven to be reliable. Numerical examples on a variety of shells with different boundary conditions are investigated, and results are well compared and validated. Influences of a variety of shell parameters on natural frequencies of both cylindrical and spherical shells are discussed in detail, demonstrating that the proposed dynamic stiffness formulation is applicable to analyse natural frequencies of moderately thick shells of revolution with high accuracy