Shells are basic structural elements of modern technology. Examples of shell structures include automobile bodies, domes, water and oil tanks, pipelines, ship hulls, aircraft fuselages, turbine blades, laudspeaker cones, but also balloons, parachutes, biological membranes, a human skin, a bottle of wine or a beer can. This volume contains full texts of over 100 papers presented by specialists from over 20 countries at the 8th Conference "Shell Structures: Theory and Applications", 12-14 October, 2005 in Jurata (Poland). The aim of the meeting was to bring together scientists, designers, engineers and other specialists in shell structures in order to discuss important results and new ideas in this field. The goal is to pursue more accurate theoretical models, to develop more powerful and versatile methods of analysis, and to disseminate expertise in design and maintenance of shell structures. Among the authors there are many distinguished specialists of shell structures, including the authors of general lectures: I.V. Andrianov (Ukraine), V.A. Eremeyev (Russia), A. Ibrahimbegovic (France), P. Klosowski (Poland), B.H. Kröplin (Germany), E. Ramm (Germany), J.M. Rotter (UK) and D. Steigmann (USA). The subject area of the papers covers various theoretical models and numerical analyses of strength, dynamics, stability, optimization etc. of different types of shell structures, their design and maintenance, as well as modelling of some surface-related mechanical phenomena.
