Travelling wave and non-stationary response in nonlinear vibrations of water-filled circular cylindrical shells: Experiments and simulations

The nonlinear vibrations of a water-filled circular cylindrical shell subjected to radial harmonic excitation in the spectral neighbourhood of the lowest resonances are investigated experimentally and numerically by using a seamless aluminium sample. The experimental boundary conditions are close to simply supported edges. The presence of exact one-to-one internal resonance, giving rise to a travelling wave response around the shell circumference and non-stationary vibrations, is experimentally observed and the nonlinear response is numerically reproduced. The travelling wave is measured by means of state-of-the-art laser Doppler vibrometers applied to multiple points on the structure simultaneously. Chaos is detected in the frequency region where the travelling wave response is present. The reduced-order model is based on the Novozhilov nonlinear shell theory retaining in-plane inertia and the nonlinear equations of motion are numerically studied (i) by using a code based on arclength continuation method that allows bifurcation analysis in case of stationary vibrations, (ii) by a continuation code based on direct integration and Poincare maps that evaluates also the maximum Lyapunov exponent in case of non-stationary vibrations. The comparison of experimental and numerical results is particularly satisfactory.