ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the main aspects of the plate and shell theories and the plate and shell elements used for analyzing plate and shell structures. Many structure members can be categorized as plates and shells, which are extensions of the 1-D straight beams and curved beams to 2-D cases, respectively. Plates are flat surfaces applied with lateral loading, with bending behaviors dominating the structural response. Unlike the plate models, where only bending forces exist, there are two types of forces in shells, that is, membrane forces and bending forces. Similar to the plate theories, there are two types of theories for modeling shells, namely thin shell theory and thick shell theory. Discretization of the surfaces will involve the use of plate or shell elements, with the quality of the surface mesh improving with decreasing element size. Shell theories are the most complicated ones to formulate and analyze in mechanics.
