The book presents mathematical and mechanical aspects of the theory of plates and shells, applications in civil, aero-space and mechanical engineering, as well in other areas. The focus relates to the following problems:• comprehensive review of the most popular theories of plates and shells,• relations between three-dimensional theories and two-dimensional ones,• presentation of recently developed new refined plates and shells theories (for example, the micropolar theory or gradient-type theories),• modeling of coupled effects in shells and plates related to electromagnetic and temperature fields, phase transitions, diffusion, etc.,• applications in modeling of non-classical objects like, for example, nanostructures,• presentation of actual numerical tools based on the finite element approach.

*** Featuring a foreword by Pritzker Prize Winner Shigeru Ban *** Bringing together experts from research and practice, Shell Structures for Architecture: Form Finding and Optimization presents contemporary design methods for shell and gridshell structures, covering form-finding and structural optimization techniques. It introduces architecture and engineering practitioners and students to structural shells and provides computational techniques to develop complex curved structural surfaces, in the form of mathematics, computer algorithms, and design case studies. • Part I introduces the topic of shells, tracing the ancient relationship between structural form and forces, the basics of shell behaviour, and the evolution of form-finding and structural optimization techniques. • Part II familiarizes the reader with form-finding techniques to explore expressive structural geometries, covering the force density method, thrust network analysis, dynamic relaxation and particle-spring systems. • Part III focuses on shell shape and topology optimization, and provides a deeper understanding of gradient-based methods and meta-heuristic techniques. • Part IV contains precedent studies of realised shells and gridshells describing their innovative design and construction methods.

Shells are basic structural elements of modern technology. Examples of shell structures include automobile bodies, domes, water and oil tanks, pipelines, ship hulls, aircraft fuselages, turbine blades, laudspeaker cones, but also balloons, parachutes, biological membranes, a human skin, a bottle of wine or a beer can. This volume contains full texts of over 100 papers presented by specialists from over 20 countries at the 8th Conference "Shell Structures: Theory and Applications", 12-14 October, 2005 in Jurata (Poland). The aim of the meeting was to bring together scientists, designers, engineers and other specialists in shell structures in order to discuss important results and new ideas in this field. The goal is to pursue more accurate theoretical models, to develop more powerful and versatile methods of analysis, and to disseminate expertise in design and maintenance of shell structures. Among the authors there are many distinguished specialists of shell structures, including the authors of general lectures: I.V. Andrianov (Ukraine), V.A. Eremeyev (Russia), A. Ibrahimbegovic (France), P. Klosowski (Poland), B.H. Kröplin (Germany), E. Ramm (Germany), J.M. Rotter (UK) and D. Steigmann (USA). The subject area of the papers covers various theoretical models and numerical analyses of strength, dynamics, stability, optimization etc. of different types of shell structures, their design and maintenance, as well as modelling of some surface-related mechanical phenomena.

This book attempts to bring the essence of shell structures within the grasp of engineers. It tackles the fundamental question of how bending and stretching effects combine and interact in shell structures from a physical point of view; and shows that this approach leads to an understanding of the structural mechanics of shells in general.

Shells are basic structural elements of modern technology and everyday life. Examples are automobile bodies, water and oil tanks, pipelines, aircraft fuselages, nanotubes, graphene sheets or beer cans. Also nature is full of living shells such as leaves of trees, blooming flowers, seashells, cell membranes, the double helix of DNA or wings of insects. In the human body arteries, the shell of the eye, the diaphragm, the skin or the pericardium are all shells as well. Shell Structures: Theory and Applications, Volume 3 contains 137 contributions presented at the 10th Conference “Shell Structures: Theory and Applications” held October 16-18, 2013 in Gdansk, Poland. The papers cover a wide spectrum of scientific and engineering problems which are divided into seven broad groups: general lectures, theoretical modelling, stability, dynamics, bioshells, numerical analyses, and engineering design. The volume will be of interest to researchers and designers dealing with modelling and analyses of shell structures and thin-walled structural elements.

The book is devoted to an up-dated exploratory survey of results concerning elastic cusped shells, plates, and beams and cusped prismatic shell-fluid interaction problems. It contains some up to now non-published results as well. Mathematically the corresponding problems lead to non-classical, in general, boundary value and initial-boundary value problems for governing degenerate elliptic and hyperbolic systems in static and dynamical cases, respectively. Its uses two fundamentally different approaches of investigation: 1) to get results for two-dimensional and one-dimensional problems from results of the corresponding three-dimensional problems and 2) to investigate directly governing degenerate and singular systems of 2D and 1D problems. In both the cases, it is important to study relation of 2D and 1D problems to 3D problems.

Plate and Shell Structures: Selected Analytical and Finite Element Solutions Maria Radwañska, Anna Stankiewicz, Adam Wosatko, Jerzy Pamin Cracow University of Technology, Poland Comprehensively covers the fundamental theory and analytical and numerical solutions for different types of plate and shell structures Plate and Shell Structures: Selected Analytical and Finite Element Solutions not only provides the theoretical formulation of fundamental problems of mechanics of plates and shells, but also several examples of analytical and numerical solutions for different types of shell structures. The book contains advanced aspects related to stability analysis and a brief description of modern finite element formulations for plates and shells, including the discussion of mixed/hybrid models and locking phenomena. Key features: 52 example problems solved and illustrated by more than 200 figures, including 30 plots of finite element simulation results. Contents based on many years of research and teaching the mechanics of plates and shells to students of civil engineering and professional engineers. Provides the basis of an intermediate-level course on computational mechanics of shell structures. The book is essential reading for engineering students, university teachers, practitioners and researchers interested in the mechanics of plates and shells, as well as developers testing new simulation software.

In this volume scientists and researchers from industry discuss the new trends in simulation and computing shell-like structures. The focus is put on the following problems: new theories (based on two-dimensional field equations but describing non-classical effects), new constitutive equations (for materials like sandwiches, foams, etc. and which can be combined with the two-dimensional shell equations), complex structures (folded, branching and/or self intersecting shell structures, etc.) and shell-like structures on different scales (for example: nano-tubes) or very thin structures (similar to membranes, but having a compression stiffness). In addition, phase transitions in shells and refined shell thermodynamics are discussed. The chapters of this book are the most exciting contributions presented at the EUROMECH 527 Colloquium “Shell-like structures: Non-classical Theories and Applications” held in Wittenberg, Germany.