This volume is a thorough introduction to contemporary research in elasticity, and may be used as a working textbook at the graduate level for courses in pure or applied mathematics or in continuum mechanics. It provides a thorough description (with emphasis on the nonlinear aspects) of the two competing mathematical models of three-dimensional elasticity, together with a mathematical analysis of these models. The book is as self-contained as possible.

The Mathematical Elasticity set contains three self-contained volumes that together provide the only modern treatise on elasticity. They introduce contemporary research on three-dimensional elasticity, the theory of plates, and the theory of shells. Each volume contains proofs, detailed surveys of all mathematical prerequisites, and many problems for teaching and self-study. An extended preface and extensive bibliography have been added to each volume to highlight the progress that has been made since the original publication. The first book, Three-Dimensional Elasticity, covers the modeling and mathematical analysis of nonlinear three-dimensional elasticity. In volume two, Theory of Plates, asymptotic methods provide a rigorous mathematical justification of the classical two-dimensional linear plate and shallow shell theories. The objective of Theory of Shells, the final volume, is to show how asymptotic methods provide a rigorous mathematical justification of the classical two-dimensional linear shell theories: membrane, generalized membrane, and flexural. These classic textbooks are for advanced undergraduates, first-year graduate students, and researchers in pure or applied mathematics or continuum mechanics. They are appropriate for courses in mathematical elasticity, theory of plates and shells, continuum mechanics, computational mechanics, and applied mathematics in general.

Graduate-level study approaches mathematical foundations of three-dimensional elasticity using modern differential geometry and functional analysis. It presents a classical subject in a modern setting, with examples of newer mathematical contributions. 1983 edition.

TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. In preparing this translation, I have taken the liberty of including footnotes in the main text or inserting them in small type at the appropriate places. I have also corrected minor misprints without special mention .. The Chapters and Sections of the original text have been called Parts and Chapters respectively, where the latter have been numbered consecutively. The subject index was not contained in the Russian original and the authors' index represents an extension of the original list of references. In this way the reader should be able to find quickly the pages on which anyone reference is discussed. The transliteration problem has been overcome by printing the names of Russian authors and journals also in Russian type. While preparing this translation in the first place for my own informa tion, the knowledge that it would also become accessible to a large circle of readers has made the effort doubly worthwhile. I feel sure that the reader will share with me in my admiration for the simplicity and lucidity of presentation.

TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. In preparing this translation, I have taken the liberty of including footnotes in the main text or inserting them in small type at the appropriate places. I have also corrected minor misprints without special mention .. The Chapters and Sections of the original text have been called Parts and Chapters respectively, where the latter have been numbered consecutively. The subject index was not contained in the Russian original and the authors' index represents an extension of the original list of references. In this way the reader should be able to find quickly the pages on which anyone reference is discussed. The transliteration problem has been overcome by printing the names of Russian authors and journals also in Russian type. While preparing this translation in the first place for my own informa tion, the knowledge that it would also become accessible to a large circle of readers has made the effort doubly worthwhile. I feel sure that the reader will share with me in my admiration for the simplicity and lucidity of presentation.

The objective of Volume II is to show how asymptotic methods, with the thickness as the small parameter, indeed provide a powerful means of justifying two-dimensional plate theories. More specifically, without any recourse to any a priori assumptions of a geometrical or mechanical nature, it is shown that in the linear case, the three-dimensional displacements, once properly scaled, converge in H1 towards a limit that satisfies the well-known two-dimensional equations of the linear Kirchhoff-Love theory; the convergence of stress is also established.In the nonlinear case, again after ad hoc scalings have been performed, it is shown that the leading term of a formal asymptotic expansion of the three-dimensional solution satisfies well-known two-dimensional equations, such as those of the nonlinear Kirchhoff-Love theory, or the von Kármán equations. Special attention is also given to the first convergence result obtained in this case, which leads to two-dimensional large deformation, frame-indifferent, nonlinear membrane theories. It is also demonstrated that asymptotic methods can likewise be used for justifying other lower-dimensional equations of elastic shallow shells, and the coupled pluri-dimensional equations of elastic multi-structures, i.e., structures with junctions. In each case, the existence, uniqueness or multiplicity, and regularity of solutions to the limit equations obtained in this fashion are also studied.