During the last ten years a considerable volume of inform ation has been accumulated regarding the inelastic behaviour of materials. The increasing number of communications published in specialised journals and also the frequency of meetings in these fields, indicates a considerable research effort aimed at such topics as plasticity, creep, fatigue, visco-plasticity and the like. This fact encouraged a group of Brazilian researchers, stimulated enthusiastically by Professor P. Germain, to submit a proposal for a Symposium on the "Inelastic Behaviour of Plates and Shells" to the General Assembly of IUTAM. Brazil had recently joined IUTAM and the Brazilian Association of Mechanical Sciences was eager to host an IUTAM meeting. In the selection of the subject, it was taken into account, besides a promising number of original contributions, the interest to be raised amongst the Brazilian researchers and engineers, in order to maximise the participation of the host country. The recent steps taken in this country towards the develop ment of the aero-space industry, the construction of nuclear power plants a.nd the off-shore exploration of petroleum have required an intensification of research activities in several fields, structural behaviour of plates and shells being one of the most important. Therefore, the suggested theme would attract the interest or a significant group of Brazilian researchers and engineers and match the necessity for exchanging experience among leading scientists working in those fields.

As an expert in structure and stress analysis, the author has written extensively on functionally graded materials (FGMs), nonlinear vibration and dynamic response of functionally graded material plates in thermal environments, buckling and postbuckling analysis of single-walled carbon nanotubes in thermal environments. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the author's works which include significant contributions to the postbuckling behavior of plates and shells under different loading and environmental conditions.This book comprises eight chapters. Each chapter contains adequate introductory material so that an engineering graduate who is familiar with basic understanding of plates and shells will be able to follow it.

Plate and shell theories experienced a renaissance in recent years. The potentials of smart materials, the challenges of adaptive structures, the demands of thin-film technologies and more on the one hand and the availability of newly developed mathematical tools, the tremendous increase in computer facilities and the improvement of commercial software packages on the other caused a reanimation of the scientific interest. In the present book the contributions of the participants of the EUROMECH Colloquium 444 "Critical Review of the Theories of Plates and Shells and New Applications" have been collected. The aim was to discuss the common roots of different plate and shell approaches, to review the current state of the art, and to develop future lines of research. Contributions were written by scientists with civil and mechanical engineering as well as mathematical and physical background.

This text presents a complete treatment of the theory and analysis of elastic plates. It provides detailed coverage of classic and shear deformation plate theories and their solutions by analytical as well as numerical methods for bending, buckling and natural vibrations. Analytical solutions are based on the Navier and Levy solution method, and numerical solutions are based on the Rayleigh-Ritz methods and finite element method. The author address a range of topics, including basic equations of elasticity, virtual work and energy principles, cylindrical bending of plates, rectangular plates and an introduction to the finite element method with applications to plates.

This book is intended primarily as a teaching text, as well as a reference for individual study in the behavior of thin walled structural components. Such structures are widely used in the engineering profession for spacecraft, missiles, aircraft, land-based vehicles, ground structures, ocean craft, underwater vessels and structures, pressure vessels, piping, chemical processing equipment, modern housing, etc. It presupposes that the reader has already completed one basic course in the mechanics or strength of materials. It can be used for both undergraduate and graduate courses. Since beams (columns, rods), plates and shells comprise components of so many of these modern structures, it is necessary for engineers to have a working knowledge of their behavior when these structures are subjected to static, dynamic (vibration and shock) and environmental loads. Since this text is intended for both teaching and self-study, it stresses fundamental behavior and techniques of solution. It is not an encyclopedia of all research or design data, but provides the reader the wherewithal to read and study the voluminous literature. Chapter 1 introduces the three-dimensional equations oflinear elasticity, deriving them to the extent necessary to treat the following material. Chapter 2 presents, in a concise way, the basic assumptions and derives the governing equations for classical Bernoulli-Euler beams and plates in a manner that is clearly understood.

This collection of papers is a state of the art presentation of theories and methods related to the problem of the behaviour of mechanical structures under variable loads beyond their elastic limit In particular, the problems of shakedown, ratchetting, transient and asymptotic cyclic states are addressed. The volume is composed of four chapters devoted to material modelling for cyclic loading conditions; general theory of accommodated states of structures; effects of changes of the geometry on the inelastic structural response; and numerical techniques with applications to particular engineering problems. It was aimed to provide a unified approach in order to understand both inelastic material and structural response under variable loading conditions. The attempt to extend the classical shakedown theory of Melan and Koiter to geometrically non-linear problems is presented in several papers. The industrial application of cyclic plasticity to the analysis and the design of pressure bellows, compensators, turbine disks, or flange connections under thermal and pressure cycles illustrates the great potential of the numerical techniques developed for this purpose using mostly min-max approaches. The treatment of railway problems and the analysis and optimisation of pavements are further examples of important areas of applications. Emphasis was laid on approaches that take into account the fact that loading histories are often not precisely known Therefore, the center of interest lies in other than step by step calculation methods.

Presenting recent principles of thin plate and shell theories, this book emphasizes novel analytical and numerical methods for solving linear and nonlinear plate and shell dilemmas, new theories for the design and analysis of thin plate-shell structures, and real-world numerical solutions, mechanics, and plate and shell models for engineering appli