Free Vibrations of Longitudinally Stiffened Cylindrical Shells

Abstract

This study is concerned with the free-vibration characteristics of thin cylindrical shells reinforced by longitudinal stringers for any edge boundary conditions. The structural system is treated as an isotropic cylinder interacting with a set of discrete thin-walled stringers. Frequencies of simply supported shells obtained according to the present analysis compare favorably with Ritz solution and existing experimental data. For mode shapes, the present analysis often yields much better results than Ritz solution. Numerical results for frequencies and mode shapes for clamped-clamped cylindrical shells are included, and frequencies of a shell with very flexible stiffeners compare favorably with frequencies of an unstiffened shell.