A general method for predicting acoustic radiation from multiple periodic structures is presented and a numerical solution is proposed to find the radial displacement of thick laminated cylindrical shells with sparse cross stiffeners in the wavenumber domain. Although this method aims at the sound radiation from a single stiffened cylindrical shell, it can be easily adapted to analyze the vibrational and sound characteristics of two concentric cylindrical shells or two parallel plates with complicated periodic stiffeners, such as submarine and ship hulls. The sparse cross stiffeners are composed of two sets of parallel rings and one set of longitudinal stringers. The acoustic power of large cylindrical shells above the ring frequency is derived in the wavenumber domain on the basis of the fact that sound power is focused on the acoustic ellipse. It transpires that a great many band gaps of wave propagation in the helical wave spectra of the radial displacement for stiffened cylindrical shells are generated by the rings and stringers. The acoustic power and input power of stiffened antisymmetric laminated cylindrical shells are computed and compared. The acoustic energy conversion efficiency of the cylindrical shells is less than 10%. The axial and circumferential point forces can also produce distinct acoustic power. The radial displacement patterns of the antisymmetric cylindrical shell with fluid loadings are illustrated in the space domain. This study would help to better understand the main mechanism of acoustic radiation from stiffened laminated composite shells, which has not been adequately addressed in its companion paper (Cao et al., 2012, “Acoustic Radiation From Shear Deformable Stiffened Laminated Cylindrical Shells,” J. Sound Vib., 331(3), pp. 651-670).
