The Space of Inextensional Displacements for a Partially Clamped Linearly Elastic Shell with an Elliptic Middle Surface

We consider a linearly elastic shell with an “elliptic” middle surface, clamped along a portion of its lateral face and subjected to body forces. Under weak regularity assumptions on the middle surface, we prove that the space of linearized inextensional displacements is reduced to zero, by using unique continuation results. Consequently, when the thickness of the shell goes to zero, the limit of the average with respect to the thickness of the three-dimensional displacement vector solves the “generalized membrane” shell model, according to the terminology introduced by P.G. Ciarlet and the first author. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.