UNIFIED THIN-SHELL THEORY,

Structural components which have one dimension very much smaller than the other characteristic dimensions are widely used in many fields of engineering. Such plate and shell structures have received wide attention in the literature. Quite often a complex reinforced shell can be represented by an equivalent unreinforced anisotropic shell which under appropriate conditions can be considered to be of an orthotropic material. With very few exceptions, problems involving small deformations, large deformations, and buckling are treated separately with the interrelation of these three areas of theory not clearly revealed. It is the purpose of these notes to present in a concise manner a theory of thin-shells which, while revealing the essential unity of the whole of shell theory, still retains much of the simplicity afforded by the acceptance of the usual assumptions. The general mathematical approach described by Novozhilov for problems of nonlinear elasticity is applied in the present development. (Author)