Geometrical and P.D.E. methods in the treatment of the theory of shells: comparing Euclidean and affine approaches (Q2260784)

Summary: The use of differential equations methods in the approach, treatment, and solution of problems in diverse areas of geometry, particularly in affine differential geometry is well known and prolific, where they have proven to be quite fruitful when it comes to the obtainment of definite results. It is perhaps lesser known that the same kind of those very same methods has been and is currently being used to treat developments in some specific areas of applied sciences, such as the theory of shells where, similarly, they can be proven to be quite effective as well. In this paper we precisely show that such is the case in two particular, related instances: the historic approach of the classical, Euclidean part of the theory pursued by Fritz John, in the past century, and the more recent expositions that we ourselves have dedicated to the affine counterpart of the theory.