Elastic Wave Propagation from Point Excitations on Thin-Walled Cylindrical Shells

Abstract

The circular cylindrical shell is described by equations that govern wave propagation in a two-dimensional homogeneous, but anisotropic and dispersive, medium. The idealization of an unbounded medium is applicable if the source is replaced by a periodic array of forces, the repetition distance being the cylinder circumference. Analytical expressions and calculations are presented for wavefront patterns, amplitude distributions, polarizations, and phase velocities for waves on the cylinder surface. The analysis includes all three possible directions of the exciting force and gives fundamental results that can be superimposed to predict vibration fields resulting from arbitrary excitations.