In order to study the free vibration of simply supported circular cylindrical shells, an exact analytical procedure is developed and discussed in detail. Part I presents a general approach for exact analysis of natural frequencies and mode shapes of circular cylindrical shells. The validity of the exact technique is verified using four different shell theories 1) Soedel, 2) Flugge, 3) Morley-Koiter and 4) Donnell. The exact procedure is compared favorably with experimental results and those obtained using a numerical finite element method. A literature review reveals that beam functions are used extensively as an approximation for simply supported boundary conditions. The accuracy of the resonance frequencies obtained using the approximate method are also investigated by comparing results with those of the exact analysis. Part II presents effects of different parameters on mode shapes and natural frequencies of circular cylindrical shells.

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