On a Description of Deformable Junction in the Resultant Nonlinear Shell Theory

The virtual work principle for two regular shell elements joined together along a part of their boundaries is proposed within the general nonlinear resultant shell theory. It is assumed that translations across the junction curve are smooth, but no restrictions are enforced on the rotations. For stiff and hinge type junctions, the curvilinear integral along the junction curve vanishes identically. In the case of deformable junction, the 1D constitutive type relation is proposed, where the constitutive function should be established by experiments for each particular engineering construction of the junction.