Dynamic formulation for geometrically-exact sandwich shells

Extending our recent works on geometrically-exact sandwich beams and one-dimensional plates [see e.g. Vu-Quoc and Ebcioǧlu (1995); Vu-Quoc and Deng (1995c); Vu-Quoc and Deng (1995a)], we present here a geometrically-exact sandwich shell theory, entirely in terms of stress resultants which accommodates finite deformations in membrane, bending, and transverse shear. The motion of the shell are referred directly to the inertial frame; the transverse fiber of the sandwich shell has a motion identical to that of a chain of three rigid links connected by revolute joints. An important approximated theory is developed from the general nonlinear equations, the classical linear theory is recovered by the consistent linearization.