Complex thin-plate structures such as ships and bridges are welded together with numerous thin plates stiffeners. Thermal elastic-plastic analysis based on the finite element method is a fundamental tool for predicting welding deformations residual stresses in large steel structures. The shell-solid coupling can improve scale efficiency compared to solid method. This study aims introduce into m...

The influence of arbitrary edge loads on the stresses and deformations of thin, elastic shells with general boundaries is studied by means of asymptotic expansions of a general tensor equation. Expansions are made in terms of an exponential or an Airy function and a series in powers of a small-thickness parameter. Most of the steps in the procedure are effected by using the dyadic form of the t...

We perform a hybrid experimental and numerical study of the localization of deformation in thin spherical elastic shells under indentation. Past a critical indentation, the deformation of the shell ceases to be axisymmetric and sharp points of localized curvature form. In plates, these sharp points are known as d-cones. By way of analogy, regions of localization in shells are referred to as s-c...

We present a theory of flexural wave propagation on elastic shells having nontrivial geometry and develop an analogy to geometric optics. The transport of momentum within the shell itself is anisotropic due to the curvature, and as such complex classical effects such as birefringence are generically found. We determine the equations of reflection and refraction of such waves at boundaries betwe...

We probe the local mechanical properties of microtubules at the nanometer scale by radial indentation with a scanning force microscope tip. We find a linear elastic regime that can be described by both thin-shell theory and finite element methods, in which microtubules are modeled as hollow tubes. We also find a nonlinear regime and catastrophic collapse of the microtubules under large loads. T...

We present results from a numerical investigation of the localization of deformation in thin elastomeric spherical shells loaded by differently shaped indenters. Beyond a critical indentation, the deformation of the shell ceases to be axisymmetric and sharp structures of localized curvature form, referred to as “s-cones,” for “shell-cones.” We perform a series of numerical experiments to system...

Despite the common use of the blooming metaphor, its floral inspiration remains poorly understood. Here we study the physical process of blooming in the asiatic lily Lilium casablanca. Our observations show that the edges of the petals wrinkle as the flower opens, suggesting that differential growth drives the deployment of these laminar shell-like structures. We use a combination of surgical m...

It is well known that it is very difficult to manufacture perfect thin cylindrical shell. Initial geometrical imperfections existing in the shell structure is one of the main determining factor for load bearing capacity of thin cylindrical shell under uniform lateral pressure. As these imperfections are random, the strength of same size cylindrical shell will also random and a statistical metho...

We describe a numerical method to simulate an elastic shell immersed in a viscous incompressible fluid. The method is developed as an extension of the immersed boundary method using shell equations based on the Kirchhoff-Love and the planar stress hypotheses. A detailed derivation of the shell equations used in the numerical method is presented. This derivation as well as the numerical method, ...