This book deals with the dynamical modeling of thin elastic structures, such as beams, plates and shells - particularly, the linear and nonlinear vibrations in these structures. The approach makes systematic use of variational equations of motion.

This book is based on my experiences as a teacher and as a researcher for more than four decades. When I started teaching in the early 1950s, I became interested in the vibrations of plates and shells. Soon after I joined the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn as a professor, I began working busily on my research in vibrations of sandwich and layered plates and shells, and then teaching a graduate course on the same subject. Although I tried to put together my lecture notes into a book, I never finished it. Many years later, I came to the New Jersey Institute of Technology as the dean of engineering. When I went back to teaching and looked for some research areas to work on, I came upon laminated composites and piezoelectric layers, which appeared to be natural extensions of sandwiches. Working on these for the last several years has brought me a great deal of joy, since I still am able to find my work relevant. At least I can claim that I still am pursuing life-long learning as it is advocated by educators all over the country. This book is based on the research results I accumulated during these two periods of my work, the first on vibrations and dynamical model ing of sandwiches, and the second on laminated composites and piezoelec tric layers."