No label defined (Q4938962)

There are a lot of works on the formal derivation of lower dimensional models for strings, beams, plates, shells from the three-dimensional elasticity in the case of linear elasticity. The aim of this paper is to derive the nonlinear membrane model from the three-dimensional nonlinear elasticity by means of a rigorous convergence result. A sequence of three-dimensional cylindrical bodies, which are made of the same hyperelastic material and are submitted to given loads and boundary conditions on their lateral surfaces is considered, and the nonlinear membrane model is obtained as a variational limit. It is shown that the deformations, that minimize the total energy, weakly converge in a Sobolev space to the deformations minimizing the nonlinear membrane energy, as the thickness goes to zero. The tools of \(\Gamma\) convergence theory are used to derive an expression of the nonlinear membrane energy. It is proven, that the obtained nonlinear membrane model is frame-indifferent. An explicit formula for the nonlinear membrane energy corresponding to a Saint-Venant-Kirchhoff material is also given. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0927.00031].