Asymptotic analysis of nonlinearly elastic shells with variable thickness

P.G. Ciarlet recently proposed, and justified with A. Roquefort through the method of formal asymptotic expansions, a nonlinear shell model for shells with constant thickness. This model is analogous in its form to the model formerly proposed by W.T. Koiter, but is more amenable to numerical computations. In the same spirit, we propose and we justify here, again by the method of formal asymptotic expansions, a more general nonlinear model, which is valid for shells with variable thickness.