Abstract
The free vibrations of thick circular cylindrical shells and rings are discussed in this paper. The well-known energy method, which is based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity, is used in the derivation of the frequency equation of the shell. The frequency equation yields resonant frequencies for all the circumferential modes of vibration, including the breathing and beam-type modes. Experimental investigations were carried out on several models in order to assess the validity of the analysis. This paper first describes briefly the method of analysis. In the end, the calculated frequencies are compared with the experimental values. A very close agreement between the theoretical and experimental values of the resonant frequencies for all the models was obtained and this validates the method of analysis.