Plate shell structures - statics and stability

This paper describes the basic structural system, statics and spatial stability of plate shells. The structural system can be considered as a single layer of planar elements, where each element only transfers in-plane (membrane) forces to its neighbouring elements. External out-of-plane loads are carried into the structure as in-plane forces by plate action in each element.

These in-plane forces are then carried through the plate structure to the supports as in-plane forces by membrane action. The consequence is that the spatial stability of the structure can be simply analysed by considering the plate system as only subject to in-plane loads. The stability of such systems is based on the fact that each plane element is held fixed in space by three fixed support lines and that these support lines can be provided by three plane neighbour elements.

This means that the spatial stability of a plate system is dual to that of a spatial truss system, which means the stringer system [1] can be applied to plate-shell structures.