A new, unified, theoretical framework for the formulation of general, nonlinear, single-scale shell theories

The predictions of the theory are compared with the results obtained from an exact elastic solution for the static response of a sphere and the exact elastic solution for the dynamic response of monolithic sphere. Both exact solutions are based on the assumptions of spherically symmetric boundary conditions. It is shown that the theory is capable of providing accurate predictions for the pointwise (displacement, strain, and stress) fields distributions in laminated and monolithic shells. Furthermore, it is shown that the behavior of the theory is self-convergent and thus increasing the order of the analysis always converges the predictions to the correct answer.