Nonlinear vibrations and imperfection sensitivity of a cylindrical shell containing axial fluid flow

The high imperfection sensitivity of cylindrical shells under static compressive axial loads is a well-known phenomenon in structural stability. On the other hand, less is known of the influence of imperfections on the nonlinear vibrations of these shells under harmonic axial loads. The aim of this work is to study the simultaneous influence of geometric imperfections and an axial fluid flow on the nonlinear vibrations and instabilities of simply supported circular cylindrical shells under axial load. The fluid is assumed to be non-viscous and incompressible and the flow to be isentropic and irrotational. The behavior of the thin-walled shell is modeled by Donnell's nonlinear shallow-shell equations. It is subjected to a static uniform compressive axial pre-load plus a harmonic axial load. A low-dimensional modal expansion, which satisfies the relevant boundary and continuity conditions, and takes into account all relevant nonlinear modal interactions observed in the past in the nonlinear vibrations of cylindrical shells with and without flow is used together with the Galerkin method to derive a set of eight coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations of motion which are, in turn, solved by the Runge–Kutta method. The shell is considered to be initially at rest, in a position corresponding to a pre-buckling configuration. Then, a harmonic excitation is applied and conditions for parametric instability and dynamic snap-through are sought. The results clarify the marked influence of geometric imperfections and fluid flow on the dynamic stability boundaries, bifurcations and basins of attraction.