A New Displacement Form for the Nonlinear Equations of Motion of Shells of Revolution

In the theory of shells of revolution undergoing torsionless, axisymmetric motion, an extensional and a bending hoop strain are introduced that are linear in the displacements, regardless of the magnitudes of the strains and the meridional rotation. The resulting equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived and some common conservative surface loads are listed along with their potentials. The governing equations appear to be the simplest possible in terms of displacements.