Analysis of flexural wave velocity and vibration mode in thin cylindrical shell

The relationship between the flexural wave velocity and the excited vibration mode of a thin cylindrical shell is investigated. The natural frequency corresponding to the vibration mode is obtained as the solution of characteristic equation of thin cylindrical shell. However, all of these vibration modes are not excited actually. To estimate the excited vibration mode, the concept of "modified bending stiffness" is introduced, and the influence of each stress component upon the modified bending stiffness is analyzed. The excited mode is theoretically discriminated from the nonexcited mode based on the smallness of this modified bending stiffness. The validity of our theory is confirmed by an excellent agreement between theoretical and experimental results on flexural wave velocity.