CE 3112 Structural Analysis II

Plates and Shells

Introduction
February 2018
 Outline
• Introduction
– Shells in nature
– Applications in different disciplines
• Beam Kinematics
– Euler-Bernoulli
– Timoshenko
• Plates and Shells
– Kirchhoff
– Reissner & Mindllin
Shell Structures in Nature
 Structures around the World

Disney concert hall, Los Angeles Saint Mary’s cathedral, San Francisco

Millennium Dome, London

Shell Structures in Sri Lanka
Colombo Lotus Tower
Other Structural Forms
 Free-Form Grid Structures

Great Court, British Museum Roof of new Milan Trade Fair

Winslow, P. (2009), “Synthesis and Optimisation of Free-Form Grid Structures”,

PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.
Transportation
Self-Deployable Booms

Flattenable Foldable Tube (Astro Aerospace)

Ultra lightweight deployable CFRP boom (DLR)

ESA – Parabolic Flight Test
 Fibre Composites

𝑵 𝑨 𝑩 𝜺
=
𝑴 𝑩 𝑫 𝜿

N = force per unit width A = axial stiffness matrix

M = moment per unit width B = coupled stiffness matrix
 = mid-surface strains D = bending stiffness matrix
 = curvatures
Computer Graphics
Beam - Kinematics
Plates and Shells