General Introduction

Abstract

The theory of elastic plates and shells deals with a class of problems in Solid Mechanics characterized by the restriction that the structures concerned are thin, signifying that, in the typical geometric representation, the particular diameter measuring the thickness is substantially smaller than the other length scales of the configuration. There is a direct correlation between this common mensural feature and certain mechanical properties shared by such structures, namely an enhanced flexibility in the thickness direction and the occurrence of boundary layer phenomena reflecting the fact that the influence of some of the conditions applied to the edge surface is confined to a relatively narrow neighborhood of their area of application.

“Mathematical physics and pure analysis are not merely adjacent powers, maintaining good neighborly relations, they mutually interpenetrate and their spirit is the same.”

Henri Poincaré