JUSTIFICATION OF A TWO-DIMENSIONAL NONLINEAR SHELL MODEL OF KOITER＇S TYPE

A two-dimensional nonlinear shell model “of Koiter‘s type“ has recently been proposed by the first author. It is shown here that, according to two mutually exclusive sets of assumptions bearing on the associated manifold of admissible inextensional displacements, the leading term of a formal asymptotic expansion of the solution of this two-dimensional model, with the thickness as the “small“ parameter, satisfies either the two-dimensional equations of a nonlinearly elastic “membrane“ shell or those of a nonlinearly elastic “flexural“ shell.These conclusions being identical to those recently drawn by B. Miara, then by V. Lods and B. Miara, for the leading term of a formal asymptotic expansion of the solution of the equations of three-dimensional nonlinear elasticity, again with the thickness as the “small“ parameter, the nonlinear shell model of Koiter‘s type considered here is thus justified, at least formally.