Due to strong potential applications and more demanding requirements
imposed upon long and thick cylindrical structures, there has been
increasing research and development activities during recent years in
the field of vibration and passive vibration control of these types of
structures. An important step in the study of cylindrical structures is
the determination of their vibration modal characteristics. This modal
information plays a key role in the design and vibration suppression of
these structures when subjected to dynamic excitations. Most reported
studies on the dynamic response of cylindrical structures have been
restricted to the application of the shell theories. These theories are
based on a number of simplifying assumptions. The most important of
which is, the considered shell must be relatively thin to assume
constant stresses within the cylinder. Therefore, due to this
limitation, shell theories are inadequate to accurately describe all
possible vibration modes in thick cylindrical structures. The primary
scope of this book is to address these problems by applying the theory
of elasto-dynamics.