Free and Forced Vibration Analysis of Stepped Circular Cylindrical Shells with Several Intermediate Supports Using an Extended Wave Method; a Generalized Approach

Abstract A combination of vectorial form of wave method (VWM) with Fourier expansion series is proposed as a new vehicle for free and forced vibration analysis of stepped cylindrical shells with multiple intermediate flexible supports. The flexible supports can include springs with arbitrary properties in the possible directions. Based on Flügge thin shell theory and VWM, the reflection, propagation, and transmission matrices for a circular cylindrical shell are defined. Furthermore, contiguous vector-matrix relationships are established for free and forced vibration analysis of the issue inc...