Nonlinearly Elastic Shell Models: A Formal Asymptotic Approach I. The Membrane Model

We consider a family of three‐dimensional shells with the same middle surface, all composed of the same nonlinearly elastic Saint Venant‐Kirchhoff material. Using the method of asymptotic expansions with the thickness as the “small” parameter, and making specific assumptions on the applied forces, the geometry of the middle surface, and the kinematic boundary conditions, we show how a “limiting”, “large‐deformation” two‐dimensional model can be identified in this fashion. By linearization, this nonlinear membrane model reduces to the linear membrane model. (Accepted January 13, 1997)