This Research Note contains papers presented at the SIAM 40th anniversary meeting organised by the editors and held in Los Angeles in 1992. The papers focus on new fundamental results in the theory of plates and shells, with particular emphasis on the treatment of different materials and the nonlinearities involved. Asymptotic methods, such as formal expansions, homogenization, and two-scale convergence, are analytical tools that pervade much of the research. Some of the papers are also concerned with existence results, especially for nonlinear problems, using various functional analytic methods.

A consistent theory for thin anisotropic layered structures is developed starting from asymptotic analysis of 3D equations in linear elasticity. The consideration is not restricted to the traditional boundary conditions along the faces of the structure expressed in terms of stresses, originating a new type of boundary value problems, which is not governed by the classical Kirchhoff-Love assumptions. More general boundary value problems, in particular related to elastic foundations are also studied.The general asymptotic approach is illustrated by a number of particular problems for elastic and thermoelastic beams and plates. For the latter, the validity of derived approximate theories is investigated by comparison with associated exact solution. The author also develops an asymptotic approach to dynamic analysis of layered media composed of thin layers motivated by modeling of engineering structures under seismic excitation.

Plate and shell theories experienced a renaissance in recent years. The potentials of smart materials, the challenges of adaptive structures, the demands of thin-film technologies and more on the one hand and the availability of newly developed mathematical tools, the tremendous increase in computer facilities and the improvement of commercial software packages on the other caused a reanimation of the scientific interest. In the present book the contributions of the participants of the EUROMECH Colloquium 444 "Critical Review of the Theories of Plates and Shells and New Applications" have been collected. The aim was to discuss the common roots of different plate and shell approaches, to review the current state of the art, and to develop future lines of research. Contributions were written by scientists with civil and mechanical engineering as well as mathematical and physical background.

This Research Note contains papers presented at the SIAM 40th anniversary meeting organised by the editors and held in Los Angeles in 1992. The papers focus on new fundamental results in the theory of plates and shells, with particular emphasis on the treatment of different materials and the nonlinearities involved. Asymptotic methods, such as formal expansions, homogenization, and two-scale convergence, are analytical tools that pervade much of the research. Some of the papers are also concerned with existence results, especially for nonlinear problems, using various functional analytic methods.

This book gives a systematic and comprehensive presentation of the results concerning effective behavior of elastic and plastic plates with periodic or quasiperiodic structure. One of the chapters covers the hitherto available results concerning the averaging problems in the linear and nonlinear shell models.A unified approach to the problems studied is based on modern variational and asymptotic methods, including the methods of variational inequalities as well as homogenization techniques. Duality arguments are also exploited. A significant part of the book deals with problems important for engineering practice, such as: statical analysis of highly nonhomogeneous plates and shells for which common discretization techniques fail to be efficient, assessing stiffness reduction of cracked 0n/900m]s laminates, and assessing ultimate loads for perfectly plastic plates and shells composed of repeated segments. When possible, the homogenization formulas are cast in closed form expressions. The formulas presented in this manner are then used in constructing regularized formulations of the fundamental optimization problems for plates and shells, since the regularization concepts are based on introducing the composite regions for which microstructural properties play the role of new design variables.

This book commemorates the 75th birthday of Prof. George Jaiani – Georgia’s leading expert on shell theory. He is also well known outside Georgia for his individual approach to shell theory research and as an organizer of meetings, conferences and schools in the field. The collection of papers presented includes articles by scientists from various countries discussing the state of the art and new trends in the theory of shells, plates, and beams. Chapter 20 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Presenting recent principles of thin plate and shell theories, this book emphasizes novel analytical and numerical methods for solving linear and nonlinear plate and shell dilemmas, new theories for the design and analysis of thin plate-shell structures, and real-world numerical solutions, mechanics, and plate and shell models for engineering applications. It includes computer processes for finite difference, finite element, boundary element, and boundary collocation methods as well as other variational and numerical methods. It also contains end-of-chapter examples and problem/solution sets, a catalog of solutions for cylindrical and spherical shells, and tables of the most commonly used plates and shells.