Deformational boundary quantities in the nonlinear theory of shells with transverse shears

thorough analysis is presented of the non linear deformation of the shell lateral boundary surface. The deformation is compatible with the linear distribution of displacements across the shell thickness. It is found that the total rotation of the boundary element can be defined in two ways, by means of two alternative orthonormal triads associated with the deformed shell lateral boundary surface. For both definitions of the rotation, exact expressions for three components of the vector of change of curvature of the boundary contour are derived in terms of shell strain measures. These expressions are then consistently reduced for several particular shell theories. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd