Theory of Plates and Shells

This book deals with the analysis of plates and shells and is divided into four sections. After briefly introducing the basics of elasticity theory and the energy methods of elastostatics in the first section, the second section is devoted to the statics of disk structures. In addition to isotropic disks in Cartesian and polar coordinates, approximation methods and anisotropic disks are also discussed. The following third section deals with plate structures, covering plates in Cartesian and polar coordinates, and also discussing approximation methods and higher-order plate theories. Other chapters in this section discuss plate buckling as well as geometric nonlinear analysis and laminated plates. The fourth and final section of this book is devoted to shells, i.e., curved thin structures, following the common division into membrane theory on the one hand and bending theory on the other hand. This book is intended for students at universities, but also for engineers in practice and researchers in engineering science.