Estimating the area of extreme inclusions in Reissner–Mindlin plates

We derive upper and lower estimates of the area of unknown defects in the form of either cavities or rigid inclusions in Mindlin–Reissner elastic plates in terms of the difference δW of the works exerted by boundary loads on the defected and on the reference plate. It turns out that the upper estimates depend linearly on δW, whereas the lower ones depend quadratically on δW. These results continue a line of research concerning size estimates of extreme inclusions in electric conductors, elastic bodies and plates.