On the asymptotic membrane theory of thin hyperelastic plates (Q1388233)

Applying the asymptotic expansion technique to the three-dimensional equations of nonlinear elasticity, we derive a nonlinear asymptotic membrane theory considering large deflections and strains for thin hyperelastic plates. To this end, the displacement vector and stress tensor components are scaled via an appropriate thickness parameter, such that the present approximation takes into account larger deflection compared with those of the von Kármán plate theory. Later, for an arbitrary form of the strain energy function, we obtain the hierarchy of the field equations by expanding the displacement vector and the stress tensor in terms of powers of the square root of the thickness parameter. Then the equations belonging to the first three orders of this hierarchy are studied in detail.