Wave Propagation in Pipe-like Structures

Pipe-like shell structures are found in a wide range of practical applications such as: Wind turbine towers, jet engines, brass instruments, and piping systems. For many of these applications, structural vibrations play an important role for their performance. This thesis will in particular focus on how the curvature on a thin-walled pipe, as well as a changing radius along a straight thin-walled pipe, affects the waveguide properties. It shows that the waveguide properties of curved pipes roughly can be divided into three regimes: The curved beam regime, the cylinder regime, and the torus regime. In the curved beam regime the waveguide properties of the pipe can be approximated by classical curved beam theory while in the cylinder regime they can be approximated by cylindrical shell theory. In the torus regime none of the two other regimes apply, and a full-blown shell model is needed. For the straight pipe with changing radius, which is known as the shell of revolution, it is found that classical rod and beam theory, to some extent, can be used to approximate the fundamental modes of the torsional, axial, and breathing wave. However, by means of the shell model some remarkable effects are predicted when even these very fundamental waves are travelling along a shell of revolution. The effects cover modal changes and excitation of localised resonances. For modes of higher order similar excitations of localised resonances are also predicted.