Abstract
The multilayer plates defined in this paper are made of materials obeying Hooke's iaw and Young's moduli of them vary over the thickness of the plate. A system of equations is developed for the theory of multilayer plates which takes into account the strectching, bending and shearing deformability. The manner in which the equations of the theory are obtained consists in an application of two well known variational principles (the complementary energy minimum princeple for stresses and the potential energy minimum principle for strains). The simultaneous use of different variational principles gives the upper and lower bounds of potential energy of elastic deformation of mutilayer plates.
