Reduced-order models for nonlinear vibrations, based on natural modes: the case of the circular cylindrical shell

Reduced-order models are essential to study nonlinear vibrations of structures and structural components. The natural mode discretization is based on a two-step analysis. In the first step, the natural modes of the structure are obtained. Because this is a linear analysis, the structure can be discretized with a very large number of degrees of freedom. Then, in the second step, a small number of these natural modes are used to discretize the nonlinear vibration problem with a huge reduction in the number of degrees of freedom. This study finds a recipe to select the natural modes that must be retained to study nonlinear vibrations of an angle-ply laminated circular cylindrical shell that the author has previously studied by using admissible functions defined on the whole structure, so that an accuracy analysis is performed. The higher-order shear deformation theory developed by Amabili and Reddy is used to model the shell.