SUBSTANTIATION OF A SHEAR-DEFORMABLE THEORY OF ANISOTROPIC COMPOSITE LAMINATED SHELLS ACCOUNTING FOR THE INTERLAMINAE CONTINUITY CONDITIONS

A simple refined theory of anisotropic laminated composite shell-type structures is substantiated. The theory is based upon discarding the Love-Kirchhoff hypothesis. It incorporates transverse shear deformation effect, the geometrical nonlinearities and fulfills the geometric and static continuity conditions between the contiguous layers. It is shown that within its linearized counterpart, several theorems, analogous to the ones in the 3-D elasticity theory could be established. These ones concern e.g. Betti's reciprocity theorem, the uniqueness theorem for the solution of boundary-value problem of elastic composite shells, the minimum energy theorems, etc. Comparative remarks on the refined and the standard first order transverse shear deformation theories are made and pertinent conclusions about its usefulness and further developments are outlined.