Non-stationary radiation by a cylindrical shell: Numerical modeling using the Reissner–Mindlin theory

We consider a submerged evacuated circular cylindrical shell subjected to an external impulse loading and focus on the numerical simulation of the radiation by such a shell into the surrounding fluid. The structure of the radiated field in question is complex, and the only fully successful attempts at its numerical simulation were those where the shell was treated as an elastic body, i.e. where all the assumptions accommodating the distinctive geometry of a shell were abandoned. Our objective is to attempt introducing a mathematical model of the system that would be based on a shell theory more advanced than the ones used so far in the present context but that, at the same time, would produce the results of the same level of accuracy as the more complex, non-shell-theory-based models. We demonstrate that this is indeed possible, and that employing the Reissner–Mindlin shell theory within the framework of the semi-analytical methodology developed in our earlier work allows for an accurate reproduction of the structure of the radiated field without resorting to treating the shell as an elastic body.