Analysis of thick functionally graded plates by using higher-order shear and normal deformable plate theory and MLPG method with radial basis functions

Infinitesimal deformations of a functionally graded thick elastic plate are analyzed by using a meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) method, and a higher-order shear and normal deformable plate theory (HOSNDPT). Two types of Radial basis functions RBFs, i.e. Multiquadrics and Thin Plate Splines, are employed for constructing the trial solutions, while a fourth-order Spline function is used as the weight/test function over a local subdomain. Effective material moduli of the plate, made of two isotropic constituents with volume contents varying only in the thickness direction, are computed using the Mori–Tanaka homogenization technique. Computed results for a simply supported aluminum/ceramic plate are found to agree well with those obtained analytically. Results for a plate with two opposite edges free and the other two simply supported agree very well with those obtained by analyzing three-dimensional deformations of the plate by the finite element method. The distributions of the deflection and stresses through the plate thickness are also presented for different boundary conditions. It is found that both types of basis functions give accurate values of plate deflection, but the multiquadrics give better values of stresses than the thin plate splines.     

Analysis of cylindrical bending thermoelastic deformations of functionally graded plates by a meshless local Petrov–Galerkin method

We analyze plane strain static thermoelastic deformations of a simply supported functionally graded (FG) plate by a meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) method. Material moduli are assumed to vary only in the thickness direction. The plate material is made of two isotropic randomly distributed constituents and the macroscopic response is also modeled as isotropic. Displacements and stresses computed with the MLPG method are found to agree very well with those obtained from the analytical solution of the problem. The number of nodes required to obtain an accurate solution for a FG plate is considerably more than that needed for a homogeneous plate.The work was partially supported by the Office of Naval Research grant N00014-98-1-0300 to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with Dr. Y. D. S. Rajapakse as the program manager. L. F. Qian was also supported by the China Scholarship Council.     

Static analysis of functionally graded plates using third-order shear deformation theory and a meshless method

The collocation multiquadric radial basis functions are used to analyze static deformations of a simply supported functionally graded plate modeled by a third-order shear deformation theory. The plate material is made of two isotropic constituents with their volume fractions varying only in the thickness direction. The macroscopic response of the plate is taken to be isotropic and the effective properties of the composite are derived either by the rule of mixtures or by the Mori–Tanaka scheme. Effects of aspect ratio of the plate and the volume fractions of the constituents on the centroidal deflection are scrutinized. When Poisson’s ratios of the two constituents are nearly equal, then the two homogenization techniques give results that are close to each other. However, for widely varying Poisson’s ratios of the two constituents, the two homogenization schemes give quite different results. The computed results are found to agree well with the solution of the problem by an alternative meshless method.     

Three dimensional static and dynamic analysis of thick functionally graded plates by the meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) method

In this paper, three dimensional (3D) static and dynamic analysis of thick functionally graded plates based on the Meshless Local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) is presented. Using the kinematics of a three-dimensional continuum, the local weak form of the equilibrium equations is derived. A weak formulation for the set of governing equations is transformed into local integral equations on local sub-domains using a Heaviside step function as test function. In this case, governing equations corresponding to the stiffness matrix do not involve any domain integration or singular integrals. Nodal points are distributed in the 3D analyzed domain and each node is surrounded by a cubic sub-domain to which a local integral equation is applied. The meshless approximation based on the three-dimensional Moving Least-Square (MLS) is employed as shape function to approximate the field variable of scattered nodes in the problem domain. The Newmark time integration method is used to solve the system of coupled second-order ODEs. Effective material properties of the plate, made of two isotropic constituents with volume fractions varying only in the thickness direction, are computed using the Mori–Tanaka homogenization technique. Numerical examples for solving the static and dynamic response of elastic thick functionally graded plates are demonstrated. As a result, the distributions of the deflection and stresses through the plate thickness are presented for different material gradients and boundary conditions. The effects of the volume fractions of the constituents on the centroidal deflection are also investigated. The numerical efficiency of the proposed meshless method is illustrated by the comparison of results obtained from previous literatures.     

Three-Dimensional transient heat conduction in a functionally graded thick plate with a higher-order plate theory and a meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method

We analyze transient heat conduction in a thick functionally graded plate by using a higher-order plate theory and a meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method. The temperature field is expanded in the thickness direction by using Legendre polynomials as basis functions. For temperature prescribed on one or both major surfaces of the plate, modified Lagrange polynomials are used as basis and additional terms are added to these expansions to exactly match the given temperatures. Partial differential equations for the evolution of the coefficients of the Legendre polynomials are reduced to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) in time by a MLPG method. The ODEs are integrated by the central-difference method. The time history of evolution of the temperature at the plate centroid and through-the-thickness distribution of the temperature computed with the fifth-order plate theory are found to agree very well with those obtained analytically.Acknowledgements This work was partially supported by the ONR grant N0014-98-1-0300 to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with Dr. Y. D. S. Rajapakse as the cognizant Program Manager. L. F. Qian was also supported by the China Scholarship Council.     

Thermoelastic bending analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates

The thermoelastic bending analysis of functionally graded ceramic–metal sandwich plates is studied. The governing equations of equilibrium are solved for a functionally graded sandwich plates under the effect of thermal loads. The sandwich plate faces are assumed to have isotropic, two-constituent material distribution through the thickness, and the modulus of elasticity, Poisson’s ratio of the faces, and thermal expansion coefficients are assumed to vary according to a power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic ceramic material. Several kinds of sandwich plates are used taking into account the symmetry of the plate and the thickness of each layer. Field equations for functionally graded sandwich plates whose deformations are governed by either the shear deformation theories or the classical theory are derived. Displacement functions that identically satisfy boundary conditions are used to reduce the governing equations to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients. The influences played by the transverse normal strain, shear deformation, thermal load, plate aspect ratio, side-to-thickness ratio, and volume fraction distribution are studied. Numerical results for deflections and stresses of functionally graded metal–ceramic plates are investigated.     

A refined sin hyperbolic shear deformation theory for sandwich FG plates by enhanced meshfree with new correlation function

The moving Kriging interpolation-based (MKI) meshfree method is extended to mechanical behavior analysis of isotropic and sandwich functionally graded material plates. The MKI meshfree method, which is free of shear correction factors effect in plate analysis, is further enhanced by introducing a new multi-quadric correlation function, eliminating drawbacks of its conventional form, gaining accurate solution. In this paper, a new refined sin hyperbolic shear deformation plate theory (N-RSHSDT) is introduced for plate kinematics. The present theory gives rise to four governing equations only, and achieves the sin hyperbolic distribution of the transverse shear strains through the plate thickness. To show the accuracy and effectiveness of the developed method, numerical experiments are performed for both isotropic and sandwich composite plates.

     

Benchmark solutions for functionally graded thick plates resting on Winkler–Pasternak elastic foundations

Exact solutions for functionally graded thick plates are presented based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity. The plate is assumed isotropic at any point, while material properties to vary exponentially through the thickness. The system of governing partial differential equations is reduced to an ordinary one about the thickness coordinate by expanding the state variables into infinite dual series of trigonometric functions. Interactions between the Winkler–Pasternak elastic foundation and the plate are treated as boundary conditions. The problem is finally solved using the state space method. Effects of stiffness of the foundation, loading cases, and gradient index on mechanical responses of the plates are discussed. It is established that elastic foundations affects significantly the mechanical behavior of functionally graded thick plates. Numerical results presented in the paper can serve as benchmarks for future analyses of functionally graded thick plates on elastic foundations.     

A Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin Method for the Analysis of Cracks in the Isotropic Functionally Graded Material

A meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method (MLPG) [[Atluri and Zhu (1998)] for the analysis of cracks in isotropic functionally graded materials is presented. The meshless method uses the moving least squares (MLS) to approximate the field unknowns. The shape function has not the Kronecker Delta properties for the trial-function-interpolation, and a direct interpolation method is adopted to impose essential boundary conditions. The MLPG method does not involve any domain and singular integrals to generate the global effective stiffness matrix if body force is ignored; it only involves a regular boundary integral. The material properties are smooth functions of spatial coordinates and two interaction integrals [Rao and Rahman (2003a,b)] are used for the fracture analysis. Two numerical examples including both mode-I and mixed-mode problems are presented to calculated the stress intensity factors (SIFs) by the proposed method. Example problems in functionally graded materials are presented and compared with available reference solutions. A good agreement obtained show that the proposed method possesses no numerical difficulties.     

Geometrically nonlinear static and free vibration analysis of functionally graded piezoelectric plates

In this paper, nonlinear static and free vibration analysis of functionally graded piezoelectric plates has been carried out using finite element method under different sets of mechanical and electrical loadings. The plate with functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) is assumed to be graded through the thickness by a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. Only the geometrical nonlinearity has been taken into account and electric potential is assumed to be quadratic across the FGPM plate thickness. The governing equations are obtained using potential energy and Hamilton’s principle that includes elastic and piezoelectric effects. The finite element model is derived based on constitutive equation of piezoelectric material accounting for coupling between elasticity and electric effect using higher order plate elements. The present finite element is modeled with displacement components and electric potential as nodal degrees of freedom. Results are presented for two constituent FGPM plate under different mechanical boundary conditions. Numerical results for PZT-4/PZT-5H plate are given in dimensionless graphical forms. Effects of material composition and boundary conditions on nonlinear response are also studied. The numerical results obtained by the present model are in good agreement with the available solutions reported in the literature.     

Thermal buckling of various types of FGM sandwich plates

The sinusoidal shear deformation plate theory is used to study the thermal buckling of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates. This theory includes the shear deformation and contains the higher- and first-order shear deformation theories and classical plate theory as special cases. Material properties and thermal expansion coefficient of the sandwich plate faces are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic material. Several kinds of symmetric sandwich plates are presented. Stability equations of FGM sandwich plates include the thermal effects. The thermal loads are assumed to be uniform, linear and non-linear distribution through-the-thickness. Numerical examples cover the effects of the gradient index, plate aspect ratio, side-to-thickness ratio, loading type and sandwich plate type on the critical buckling for sandwich plates.     

Bending,Free Vibration and Buckling Analysis of Functionally Graded Plates via Wavelet Finite Element Method

Following previous work, a wavelet finite element method is developed for bending, free vibration and buckling analysis of functionally graded (FG) plates based on Mindlin plate theory. The functionally graded material (FGM) properties are assumed to vary smoothly and continuously throughout the thickness of plate according to power law distribution of volume fraction of constituents. This article adopts scaling functions of two-dimensional tensor product BSWI to form shape functions. Then two-dimensional FGM BSWI element is constructed based on Mindlin plate theory by means of two-dimensional tensor product BSWI. The proposed two-dimensional FGM BSWI element possesses the advantages of high convergence, high accuracy and reliability with fewer degrees of freedoms on account of the excellent approximation property of BSWI. Numerical examples concerning various length-to-thickness ratios, volume fraction indexes, aspect ratios and boundary conditions are carried out for bending, free vibration and buckling problems of FG plates. These comparison examples demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the proposed WFEM method comparing with the exact and referential solutions available in literatures.     

A general Fourier formulation for vibration analysis of functionally graded sandwich beams with arbitrary boundary condition and resting on elastic foundations

Free vibration analysis of functionally graded sandwich beams with general boundary conditions and resting on a Pasternak elastic foundation is presented by using strong form formulation based on modified Fourier series. Two types of common sandwich beams, namely beams with functionally graded face sheets and isotropic core and beams with isotropic face sheets and functionally graded core, are considered. The bilayered and single-layered functionally graded beams are obtained as special cases of sandwich beams. The effective material properties of functionally graded materials are assumed to vary continuously in the thickness direction according to power-law distributions in terms of volume fraction of constituents and are estimated by Voigt model and Mori–Tanaka scheme. Based on the first-order shear deformation theory, the governing equations and boundary conditions can be obtained by Hamilton’s principle and can be solved using the modified Fourier series method which consists of the standard Fourier cosine series and several supplemented functions. A variety of numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the convergence, reliability and accuracy of the present method. Numerous new vibration results for functionally graded sandwich beams with general boundary conditions and resting on elastic foundations are given. The influence of the power-law indices and foundation parameters on the frequencies of the sandwich beams is also investigated.     

Three-dimensional free vibration analysis of functionally graded annular sector plates with general boundary conditions

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate free vibration behaviors of functionally graded sector plates with general boundary conditions in the context of three-dimensional theory of elasticity. Generally, the material properties of functionally graded sector plates are assumed to vary continuously and smoothly in thickness direction. However, the changes in the material properties may occur in the other directions, such as radial direction. Therefore, two types of functionally graded annular sector plates are considered in the paper. In this work, both the Voigt model and Mori-Tanaka scheme are adopted to evaluate the effective material properties. Each of displacements of annular sector plate, regardless of boundary conditions, is expressed as modified Fourier series which consists of three-dimensional Fourier cosine series plus several auxiliary functions introduced to overcome the discontinuity problems of the displacement and its derivatives at edges. To ensure the validity and accuracy of the method, numerous examples for isotropic and functionally graded sector plates with various boundary conditions are presented. Furthermore, new results for functionally graded sector plates with elastic restraints are given. The effects of the material profiles and boundary conditions on the free vibration of the functionally sector plates are also studied.     

Natural frequencies of functionally graded plates by a meshless method

We use the global collocation method, the first and the third-order shear deformation plate theories, the Mori–Tanaka technique to homogenize material properties, and approximate the trial solution with multiquadric radial basis functions to analyze free vibrations of functionally graded plates. Frequencies computed by the present method are found to agree well with those from the analytical solution of Vel and Batra, and the numerical solution of Qian et al. based on the meshless local Petrov–Galerkin formulation.     

Natural frequency analysis of functionally graded material truncated conical shell with lengthwise material variation based on first-order shear deformation theory

Based on the first-order shear deformation theory, the free vibration of the functionally graded (FG) truncated conical shells is analyzed. The truncated conical shell materials are assumed to be isotropic and inhomogeneous in the longitudinal direction. The two-constituent FG shell consists of ceramic and metal. These constituents are graded through the length, from one end of the shell to the other end. Using Hamilton's principle the derived governing equations are solved using differential quadrature method. Fast rate of convergence of this method is tested and its advantages over other existing solver methods are observed. The primary results of this study were obtained for four different end boundary conditions, and for some special cases, acquired results were compared with those available in the literature. Furthermore, effects of geometrical parameters, material graded power index, and boundary conditions on the natural frequencies of the FG truncated conical shell are carried out.     

Elasticity solutions for a uniformly loaded rectangular plate of functionally graded materials with two opposite edges simply supported

While the expansion formula for displacements and the hypothesis that the material parameters can vary along the thickness direction in an arbitrary fashion are retained, the plate theory of functionally graded materials suggested by Mian and Spencer is extended in this paper in two aspects. First, the material is assumed to be transversely isotropic, rather than isotropic. Second, the tractions-free conditions on the top and bottom surfaces are replaced by the conditions of uniform loads applied on the surfaces. The governing equations are derived rigorously, which are expressed in terms of three components of the mid-plane displacement. The mid-plane deflection satisfies a fourth-order partial differential equation, which is similar to that in the classical plate theory (CPT). The two in-plane displacements satisfy two second-order partial differential equations and are coupled with the mid-plane deflection. Boundary conditions are expressed in the form of those adopted in the CPT. Three-dimensional elasticity solutions are presented for a uniformly loaded rectangular plate with two opposite edges simply supported and six different types of supports at the other two edges. Numerical results are given for a simply supported functionally graded plate, and good agreement with exact solutions is obtained.     

Wave propagation and transient response of a FGM plate under a point impact load based on higher-order shear deformation theory

In this paper, the wave propagation and transient response of an infinite functionally graded plate under a point impact load are presented. The effective material properties of functionally graded materials (FGMs) for the plate are assumed to vary continuously through the plate thickness and be distributed according to a volume fraction power law along the plate thickness. Based on the higher-order shear deformation theory and considering the effect of the rotary inertia, the governing equations of the wave propagation in the functionally graded plate are derived by using the Hamilton’s principle. The analytic dispersion relation of the functionally graded plate is obtained by means of integral transforms and a complete discussion of dispersion for the functionally graded plate is given. Then, using the dispersion relation and integral transforms, exact integral solutions for the functionally graded plate under a point impact load are obtained. The transient response curves of the functionally graded plates are plotted and the influence of volume fraction distributions on transient response of functionally graded plates is analyzed. Finally, the solutions of the higher-order shear deformation theory and the first-order shear deformation theory are studied.     

Thermo-Electro-Mechanical Buckling of Shear Deformable Hybrid Circular Functionally Graded Material Plates

Buckling analysis of perfect circular functionally graded plates with surface-bounded piezoelectric layers based on the first-order shear deformation theory is presented in this article. The material properties of the functionally graded (FG) layer are assumed to vary continuously through the plate thickness by distribution of power law of the volume fraction of the constituents. The plate is assumed to be under constant electrical field and two types of thermal loadings, namely, the uniform temperature rise and nonlinear temperature gradient through the thickness. Also, the stability of a plate under radial mechanical compressive force is examined. The equilibrium and stability equations are derived based on the first-order shear deformation plate theory using a variational approach. The boundary condition of the plate as an immovable type of the clamped edge is considered. Resulting equations are employed to obtain the closed-form solution for the critical buckling temperature for each loading case. The effects of electric field, piezo-to-host thickness ratio, and power law index of functionally graded plates subjected to thermo-mechanical-electrical loads are investigated. The results are compared with the classical plate theory and verified with the available data in the open literature.     

Three-dimensional thermoelastic deformations of a functionally graded elliptic plate

A new solution in closed form is obtained for the thermomechanical deformations of an isotropic linear thermoelastic functionally graded elliptic plate rigidly clamped at the edges. The through-thickness variation of the volume fraction of the ceramic phase in a metal–ceramic plate is assumed to be given by a power-law type function. The effective material properties at a point are computed by the Mori–Tanaka scheme. It is found that the through-thickness distributions of the in-plane displacements and transverse shear stresses in a functionally graded plate do not agree with those assumed in classical and shear deformation plate theories.