A general method was proposed to study the sound and vibration of a finite cylindrical shell with elastic theory. This method was developed through comprehensive analysis of the uncoupled Helmholtz equation obtained by the decomposition of elastic equations and the structure of the solution of a finite cylindrical shell analyzed by thin shell theory. The proposed method is theoretically suitable for arbitrary thickness of the shell and any frequency. Also, the results obtained through the method can be used to determine the range of application of the thin shell theory. Furthermore, the proposed method can deal with the problems limited by the thin shell theory. Additionally, the method can be suitable for several types of complex cylindrical shell such as the ring-stiffened cylindrical shell, damped cylindrical shell, and double cylindrical shell.
