On the first integral of the nonlinear shallow-membrane equation via Noether's theorem (Q1069334)

The authors propose to integrate the nonlinear differential equation for the deflection of an axial symmetric shallow membrane. The equation is derivable from a variational integral. Notwithstanding that the shape and load functions are given by the nature of the physical problem, they attempt to find them by imposing the invariance of the variational integral under an infinitesimal transformation. Then they invoke Noether's theorem to write the first integral. The paper is based on the misunderstanding that the condition of invariance of the variational integral and the first integral are different. But the invariance condition leads to the first integral. [In fact the quoted first integral (eq. 2.15) is independent of eq. 2.1, hence eliminating y'' and y' between eq. 2.1, eq. 2.15 and its derivative should lead to y, no further quadrature is necessary. Again the number of relations between the coefficients of a general cubic to be a perfect cube is two and not one, as stated]. The mistake lies in writing the erroneous eq. 2.5, which is the starting point of the paper.