Dynamic characteristics of laminated thin cylindrical shells: Asymptotic analysis accounting for edge effect

The dynamic characteristics of composite thin cylindrical shells are examined through a systematic order-of-magnitude analysis. The analysis is used to eliminate terms of secondary importance, while retaining the dominant terms in the dispersion relation and boundary conditions. This results in analytical expressions that can describe the vibration of composite cylindrical shells with high accuracy for a wide range of frequencies. Furthermore, the asymptotic analysis is carried out in such a way that the dynamic edge effect is accounted for when determining the vibration mode shapes and the associated internal stresses. Numerical examples are also presented. It is shown that the proposed methodology gives closed-form and analytical results that are in close agreement with numerical solutions of the equations of motion.