On the theory of elastic shells made from a material with voids

In this paper we present a theory for porous elastic shells using the model of Cosserat surfaces. We employ the Nunziato–Cowin theory of elastic materials with voids and introduce two scalar fields to describe the porosity of the shell: one field characterizes the volume fraction variations along the middle surface, while the other accounts for the changes in volume fraction along the shell thickness. Starting from the basic principles, we first deduce the equations of the nonlinear theory of Cosserat shells with voids. Then, in the context of the linear theory, we prove the uniqueness of solution for the boundary initial value problem. In the case of an isotropic and homogeneous material, we determine the constitutive coefficients for Cosserat shells, by comparison with the results derived from the three-dimensional theory of elastic media with voids. To this aim, we solve two elastostatic problems concerning rectangular plates with voids: the pure bending problem and the extensional deformation under hydrostatic pressure.