Junctions between three-dimensional and two-dimensional linear elastic structures (Q1113718)

We consider a problem in three-dimensional linearized elasticity, posed over a domain consisting of a plate with thickness \(2\epsilon\), inserted into a solid whose Lamé constants are independent of \(\epsilon\). If the Lamé constants of the material constituting the plate vary as \(\epsilon^{-3}\), we show that the solution of the three-dimensional problem converges, as \(\epsilon\) approaches zero, to the solution of a coupled ``pluri-dimensional'' problem of a new type, posed simultaneously over a three-dimensional open set with a slit and a two-dimensional open set.