A strain gradient Reissner-Mindlin micro-plate model obtained through an asymptotic analysis

Higher order gradient continuum theories in linear and nonlinear elasticity have recently raised the interest on many scientists, since modern technologies involving multi-scale materials exhibit size effects and a strong dependence on internal (material) lengths. A possible generalization of Cauchy model has been proposed in the pioneering works by Germain, see (Germain 1973), in which the stored energy is assumed to depend both on the strain and on the strain-gradient.