A general nonlinear theory of elastic shells

This paper presents a general nonlinear theory of elastic shells for large deflections and finite strains in reference to a certain natural state. By expanding the displacement components into power series in the coordinate θ³ normal to the undeformed middle surface of shells, the expansions of the Cauchy-Green strain tensors are expressed in terms of these expanded displacement components. Through the modified Hellinger-Reissner variational principle for a three-dimensional elastic continuum, a set of the fundamental shell equations is derived in terms of the expanded Cauchy-Green strain tensors and Kirchhoff stress resultants. The Love-Kirchhoff hypothesis is not assumed and higher order stretching and bending are taken into consideration. For elastic shells of isotropic materials, assuming the strain-energy to be an analytic function of the strain measures, general nonlinear constitutive equations are then derived. Thus, a complete and consistent two-dimensional shell theory incorporating the geometrical and physical nonlinearities is established. The classical theories of shells are directly derivable from the present results by proper truncations of the series.