Abstract: With the displacement function expressed in single trigonometric series, the circumferential bending problem of the cylindrical shell under arbitrary normal distributed load and simply supported in the opposite edges, is solved. Approximately taking the distributed load as a linear load in the infinitesimal rectangle region, the circumferential bending deformation formula of the cylindrical shell under the linear load is deduced. The special formula is obtained when the linear load is uniformly-distributed and linearly varying. The results show that, under given boundary constraints, the displacement distribution of the cylindrical shell circumferential bending deformation calculated by the theoretical method is consistent with that calculated by FEA.

Key words: cylindrical shell, circumferential bending deformation, trigonometric series, finite element