ART. 152 - On the Bending and Vibration of Thin Elastic Shells, especially of Cylindrical Form

Summary

In a former publication “On the Infinitesimal Bending of Surfaces of Revolution,” I have applied the theory of bending to explain the deformation and vibration of thin elastic shells which are symmetrical about an axis, and have worked out in detail the case where the shell is a portion of a sphere. The validity of this application depends entirely upon the principle that when the shell is thin enough and is vibrating in one of the graver possible modes, the middle surface behaves as if it were inextensible. “When a thin sheet of matter is subjected to stress, the force which it opposes to extension is great in comparison with that which it opposes to bending. Under ordinary circumstances, the deformation takes place approximately as if the sheet were inextensible as a whole, a condition which, in a remarkable degree, facilitates calculation, though (it need scarcely be said) even bending implies an extension of all but the central layers.” If we fix our attention upon one of the terms involving sines or cosines of multiples of the longitude, into which, according to Fourier's theorem, the whole deformation may be resolved, the condition of inextensibility is almost enough to define the type. If there are two edges, e.g., parallel to circles of latitude, the solution contains two arbitrary constants; but if a pole be included, as when the shell is in the form of a hemisphere, one of the constants vanishes, and the type of deformation is wholly determined, without regard to any other mechanical condition, to be satisfied at the edge or elsewhere.