A Prestressed Ring-Stiffened Cylindrical Shell: A New Spectral Element

This paper presents a dynamic analysis of a prestressed stiffened circular cylindrical shell with internal distributed pressure using the continuous element method. These types of structures are more and more used in many industrial fields thanks to their lightweight constructions. The suggested approach is based on love’s first approximation model which takes into account the first order shear deformation theory. Natural frequencies are easily processed. Prestressed shell and circumferential stiffener were coupled to build the dynamic stiffness (DS) matrix to formulate the element. This dynamic stiffness matrix is described to study the free vibration of a prestressed ring stiffened cylindrical shell subjected to axisymmetric load. Since the DS method is based on a meshless approach, common encountered disadvantages of conventional methods, such as finite elements and boundaries elements methods can be overcome. The vibration analysis is performed with numerical examples carried out to validate the suggested model, using the frequency spectrum. Elements boundaries were subjected to equivalent loads and the response of the system was determined. Compared to the finite element method, the proposed element has many advantages such as the model size, the computing time, and the accuracy. The presented study can be extended to other types of stiffened cylinders with different, orientations and shapes of the stiffeners.