Existence theorems for some boundary value problems in the nonlinear theory of annular elastic membranes

Abstract

A simplified version of Reissner's theory of thin shells of revolution suffering small strains but arbitrarily large deflections and rotations reduces, when specialized to axi-symmetric deformations of annular membranes under a vertical surface load, to a nonlinear ordinary differential equation which is free of Poisson'ratio. Within this framework the questions of existence and non-existence of non-negative solutions of the associated stress and displacement boundary value problem are brought to a final answer. Progress in this direction was made in an earlier study (Grabmüller & Pirner 1987). In this paper a continuous monotone curve is constructed which effects a subdivision of the respective ranges of boundary data into complementary domains of existence and non-existence of strictly positive solutions