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Shell structures are found abundantly in engineering designs and are routinely analyzed with finite element methods. The objective of this book is to present, in a unified manner, modern finite element procedures for general shell analysis. The first chapters introduce the basic concepts for the analysis of shells, explain the mathematical preliminaries, and discuss the mathematical models of plates and shells including their asymptotic properties. The following chapters deal with finite element discretization methods for plates and shells. At the end of the book, applications of these methods in modern engineering practice are described and an overview of nonlinear shell analysis is given.

This book presents a modern continuum mechanics and mathematical framework to study shell physical behaviors, and to formulate and evaluate finite element procedures. With a view towards the synergy that results from physical and mathematical understanding, the book focuses on the fundamentals of shell theories, their mathematical bases and finite element discretizations. The complexity of the physical behaviors of shells is analysed, and the difficulties to obtain uniformly optimal finite element procedures are identified and studied. Some modern finite element methods are presented for linear and nonlinear analyses. In this Second Edition the authors give new developments in the field and - to make the book more complete - more explanations throughout the text, an enlarged section on general variational formulations and new sections on 3D-shell models, dynamic analyses, and triangular elements. The analysis of shells represents one of the most challenging fields in all of mechanics, and encompasses various fundamental and generally applicable components. Specifically, the material presented in this book regarding geometric descriptions, tensors and mixed variational formulations is fundamental and widely applicable also in other areas of mechanics.