Free Vibration of a Thin Shell Structure of Rectangular Cross-Section

This paper presents an analysis on the free vibration of a shell structure of rectangular cross-section. The shell of rectangular cross-section is modeled by four rectangular panels elastically connected at right angles under general boundary conditions. With the general boundary and coupling conditions accounted for several groups of linear springs, the double series solutions for both flexural and in-plane vibrations are obtained by employing the Rayleigh-Ritz method and the validation of the calculations is proved by comparing the eigenpairs with the Finite Element Method results. It is shown that the mode shapes of the rigidly coupled model perform a symmetrical feature.