Exact solution for stability analysis of moderately thick functionally graded sector plates on elastic foundation

In this article, an exact analytical solution for buckling analysis of moderately thick functionally graded (FG) sector plates resting on Winkler elastic foundation is presented. The equilibrium equations are derived according to the first order shear deformation plate theory. Because of the coupling between the bending and stretching equilibrium equations of FG plates, these plates have deflection under in-plane loads lower than the critical buckling load acting on the mid-plane. The conditions under which FG plates remain flat in the pre-buckling configuration are investigated and the stability equations are obtained based on the flat plate assumption in the pre-buckling state. The stability equations are simplified into decoupled equations and solved analytically for plates having simply supported boundary condition on the straight edges. The critical buckling load is obtained and the effects of geometrical parameters and power law index on the stability of functionally graded sector plates are studded. The results for the critical buckling load of moderately thick functionally graded sector plates resting on elastic foundation are reported for the first time.     

Free vibration analysis of moderately thick functionally graded plates by local Kriging meshless method

This paper mainly Presents free vibration analyses of metal and ceramic functionally graded plates with the local Kriging meshless method. The Kriging technique is employed to construct shape functions which possess Kronecker delta function property and thus make it easy to implement essential boundary conditions. The eigenvalue equations of free vibration problems are based on the first-order shear deformation theory and the local Petrov–Galerkin formulation. The cubic spline function is used as the weight function which vanishes on internal boundaries of local quadrature domains and hence simplifies the implementation. Convergence studies are conducted to examine the stability of the present method. Three types of functionally graded plates – square, skew and quadrilateral plates – are considered as numerical examples to demonstrate the versatility of the present method for free vibration analyses.     

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.     

A nonlinear modified couple stress-based third-order theory of functionally graded plates

In this paper a general nonlinear third-order plate theory that accounts for (a) geometric nonlinearity, (b) microstructure-dependent size effects, and (c) two-constituent material variation through the plate thickness (i.e., functionally graded material plates) is presented using the principle of virtual displacements. A detailed derivation of the equations of motion, using Hamilton’s principle, is presented, and it is based on a modified couple stress theory, power-law variation of the material through the thickness, and the von Kármán nonlinear strains. The modified couple stress theory includes a material length scale parameter that can capture the size effect in a functionally graded material. The governing equations of motion derived herein for a general third-order theory with geometric nonlinearity, microstructure dependent size effect, and material gradation through the thickness are specialized to classical and shear deformation plate theories available in the literature. The theory presented herein also can be used to develop finite element models and determine the effect of the geometric nonlinearity, microstructure-dependent size effects, and material grading through the thickness on bending and postbuckling response of elastic plates.     

Study on the free vibration of thick functionally graded rectangular plates according to a new exact closed-form procedure

In this article, a new exact closed-form procedure is presented to solve free vibration analysis of functionally graded rectangular thick plates based on the Reddy’s third-order shear deformation plate theory while the plate has two opposite edges simply supported (i.e., Lévy-type rectangular plates). The elasticity modulus and mass density of the plate are assumed to vary according to a power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents whereas Poisson’s ratio is constant. Based on the present solution, five governing complicated partial differential equations of motion were exactly solved by introducing the auxiliary and potential functions and using the method of separation of variables. The validity and high accuracy of the present solutions are investigated by comparing some of the present results with their counterparts reported in literature and the 3-D finite element analysis. It is obvious that the present exact solution can accurately predict not only the out of plane, but also the in-plane modes of FG plate. Furthermore, a new eigenfrequency parameter is defined having its special own characteristics. Finally, the effects of boundary conditions, thickness to length ratio, aspect ratio and the power law index on the frequency parameter of the plate are presented.     

Three-dimensional thermomechanical buckling analysis for functionally graded composite plates

Three-dimensional thermomechanical buckling analysis is investigated for functionally graded composite structures that composed of ceramic, functionally graded material (FGM), and metal layers. Material properties are assumed to be temperature dependent, and in FGM layer, they are varied continuously in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the ceramic and metal volume fractions. The finite element model is adopted by using an 18-node solid element to analyze more accurately the variation of material properties and temperature field in the thickness direction. Temperature at each node is obtained by solving the thermomechanical equations. For a time discretization, Crank–Nicolson method is used. In numerical results, the thermal buckling behavior of FGM composite structures due to FGM thickness ratios, volume fraction distributions, and system geometric parameters are analyzed.     

Accurate solution for free vibration analysis of functionally graded thick rectangular plates resting on elastic foundation

Vibration analysis of a functionally graded rectangular plate resting on two parameter elastic foundation is presented here. The displacement filed based on the third order shear deformation plate theory is used. By considering the in-plane displacement components of an arbitrary material point on the mid-plane of the plate and using Hamilton’s principle, the governing equations of motion are obtained which are five highly coupled partial differential equations. An analytical approach is employed to decouple these partial differential equations. The decoupled equations of functionally graded rectangular plate resting on elastic foundation are solved analytically for levy type of boundary conditions. The numerical results are presented and discussed for a wide range of plate and foundation parameters. The results show that the Pasternak (shear) elastic foundation drastically changes the natural frequency. It is also observed that in some boundary conditions, the in-plane displacements have significant effects on natural frequency of thick functionally graded plates and they cannot be ignored.     

Thermomechanical bending analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates with both functionally graded face sheets and functionally graded cores

The bending response of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates subjected to thermomechanical loads is investigated using a four-variable refined plate theory. A new type of FGM sandwich plate, namely, both FGM face sheets and an FGM hard core, is considered. Containing only four unknown functions, the governing equations are deduced based on the principle of virtual work and then these equations are solved via the Navier approach. Analytical solutions are obtained to predict the deflections and stresses of simply supported FGM sandwich plates. Benchmark comparisons of the solutions obtained for a degradation model (functionally graded face sheets and homogeneous cores) with ones computed by several other theories are conducted to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the present approach. The influences of volume fraction distribution, geometrical parameters, and thermal load on dimensionless deflections and normal and shear stresses of the FGM sandwich plates are studied.     

Bending analysis of moderately thick functionally graded conical panels

Considering the application of functionally graded (FG) materials in various industries, the present study aims to investigate bending of moderately thick clamped FG conical panels subjected to uniform and non-uniform distributed loadings. Effective mechanical properties which are vary from one surface of the panel to the other assumed to be defined by a power law distribution. Three different ceramic–metal sets of materials are studied. First-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is applied to drive the governing equations of the problem which consists of five highly coupled second order partial differential equations (PDEs). The governing equations are then solved by the Extended Kantorovich Method (EKM). It is also shown that the presented formulation and solution technique can be used to obtain accurate predictions for other types of structures such as circular cylinders and rectangular plates. Predictions for cylindrical panels and plates show very good agreement with published data in the literature. Due to lack of data for FG conical panels in the literature, finite element code ANSYS is used to validate results of the presented method for FG conical panels which show very good agreement.     

Bending response of functionally graded plates by using a new higher order shear deformation theory

This paper presents an analytical solution to the static analysis of functionally graded plates, using a recently developed higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and provides detailed comparisons with other HSDT’s available in the literature. These theories account for adequate distribution of the transverse shear strains through the plate thickness and tangential stress-free boundary conditions on the plate boundary surfaces, thus a shear correction factor is not required. The mechanical properties of the plates are assumed to vary in the thickness direction according to a power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The governing equations of a functionally graded (FG) plate and boundary conditions are derived by employing the principle of virtual work. Navier-type analytical solution is obtained for FG plates subjected to transverse bi-sinusoidal and distributed loads for simply supported boundary conditions. Results are provided for thick to thin FG plates and for different volume fraction distributions. The accuracy of the present code is verified by comparing it with known results in the literature.     

Aero-thermoelastic stability of functionally graded plates

In this paper, an analytical investigation intended to determine the aero-thermoelastic stability margins of functionally graded panels is carried out. For this purpose, piston theory aerodynamics has been employed to model quasi-steady aerodynamic loading. The material properties of the plate are assumed to be graded continuously across the panel thickness. A simple power-law and the Mori–Tanaka scheme are used for estimating the effective material properties such as temperature-dependent thermoelastic properties. The effects of compressive in-plane loads and both uniform and through the thickness non-linear temperature distributions are also considered. Hamilton’s principle is used to determine the coupled partial differential equations of motion. Using Galerkin’s method, the derived equations are transformed into a set of coupled ordinary differential equations, and then solved by numerical time integration. Some examples comparing the stability margins of functionally graded panels with those of plates made of pure metals and pure ceramics are presented. It is shown that the use of functionally graded materials can yield an increase or decrease of the aeroelastic stability in the supersonic flow for different regions.     

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.     

Benchmark solution for free vibration of functionally graded moderately thick annular sector plates

In the present article, an exact analytical solution for free vibration analysis of a moderately thick functionally graded (FG) annular sector plate is presented. Based on the first-order shear deformation plate theory, five coupled partial differential equations of motion are obtained without any simplification. Doing some mathematical manipulations, these highly coupled equations are converted into a sixth-order and a fourth-order decoupled partial differential equation. The decoupled equation are solved analytically for an FG annular sector plate with simply supported radial edges. The accurate natural frequencies of the FG annular sector plates with nine different boundary conditions are presented for several aspect ratios, some thickness/length ratios, different sector angles, and various power law indices. The results show that variations of the thickness, aspect ratio, sector angle, and boundary condition of the FG annular sector plates can change the vibration wave number. Also for an FG annular sector plate with one free edge, in opposite to the other boundary conditions, the natural frequency decreases with increasing the aspect ratio for small aspect ratios. Moreover, the mode shape contour plots are depicted for an FG annular sector plate with various boundary conditions. The accurate natural frequencies of FG annular sector plates are presented for the first time and can serve as a benchmark solution.     

Thermal post-buckling analysis of functionally graded material elliptical plates based on high-order shear deformation theory

Thermal post-buckling analysis is first presented for functionally graded elliptical plates based on high-order shear deformation theory in different thermal environments. Material properties are assumed to be temperature-dependent and graded in the thickness direction. Ritz method is employed to determine the central deflection-temperature curves, the validity of which can be confirmed by comparison with related researchers' results; it is worth noting that the forms of approximate solutions are well chosen in consideration of both simplicity and accuracy. Influences played by different supported boundaries, thermal environmental conditions, ratio of major to minor axis, and volume fraction index are discussed in detail.     

Bending,buckling and vibration of size-dependent functionally graded annular microplates

The bending, buckling and free vibration of annular microplates made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) are investigated in this paper based on the modified couple stress theory and Mindlin plate theory. This microplate model incorporates the material length scale parameter that can capture the size effect in FGMs. The material properties of the FGM microplates are assumed to vary in the thickness direction and are estimated through the Mori–Tanaka homogenization technique. The higher-order governing equations and boundary conditions are derived by using Hamilton’s principle. The differential quadrature (DQ) method is employed to discretize the governing equations and to determine the deflection, critical buckling load and natural frequencies of FGM microplates. A parametric study is then conducted to investigate the influences of the length scale parameter, gradient index and inner-to-outer radius ratio on the bending, buckling and vibration characteristics of FGM microplates with hinged–hinged and clamped–clamped supports. The results show that the size effect on the bending, buckling and vibration characteristics is significant when the ratio of the microplate thickness to the material length scale parameter is smaller than 10.     

A novel five-variable refined plate theory for vibration analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates

In this article, a new five-variable refined plate theory for the free vibration analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates is developed. By dividing the transverse displacement into bending, shear, and thickness stretching parts, the number of unknowns and governing equations of the present theory is reduced, and hence, makes it simple to use. Indeed, the number of unknown functions involved in the present theory is only five, as opposed to six or more in the case of other shear and normal deformation theories. The theory accounts for hyperbolic distribution of the transverse shear strains, and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate without using a shear correction factor. Two common types of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates, namely, the sandwich with FGM facesheet and homogeneous core and the sandwich with homogeneous facesheet and FGM core, are considered. The equations of motion are obtained using Hamilton's principle. Numerical results of the present theory are compared with three-dimensional elasticity solutions and other higher-order theories reported in the literature. It can be concluded that the proposed theory is accurate and efficient in predicting the free-vibration response of functionally graded sandwich plates.     

Three-dimensional free vibration analysis of thick laminated annular sector plates using a hybrid method

An accurate and efficient solution procedure based on the three-dimensional elasticity theory for the free vibration analysis of thick laminated annular sector plates is presented. Plates with simply supported radial edges and arbitrary boundary conditions on their circular edges are considered. In order to accurately model the variation of material properties across the thickness, the layerwise theory is used to approximate the displacement components in this direction. Then, employing the Hamilton’s principle together with the modal analysis, through-the-thickness and circumferential discretized form of the equations of motion and the related boundary conditions are obtained. Finally, the differential quadrature method (DQM) as an efficient and accurate numerical method is applied to discretize the resulting variable coefficients differential equations in the radial direction. The fast rate of convergence of the method is demonstrated and to show its high accuracy, comparison studies with the available results in the literature are made. Finally, some new results are prepared, which can be used as benchmark solutions for future works.     

Thermal effects on nonlinear vibrations of functionally graded doubly curved shells using higher order shear deformation theory

Geometrically nonlinear vibrations of functionally graded (FG) doubly curved shells subjected to thermal variations and harmonic excitation are investigated via multi-modal energy approach. Two different nonlinear higher-order shear deformation theories are considered and it is assumed that the shell is simply supported with movable edges. Using Lagrange equations of motion, the energy functional is reduced to a system of infinite nonlinear ordinary differential equations with quadratic and cubic nonlinearities which is truncated based on solution convergence. A pseudo-arclength continuation and collocation scheme is employed to obtain numerical solutions for shells subjected to static and harmonic loads. The effects of FGM power law index, thickness ratio and temperature variations on the frequency–amplitude nonlinear response are fully discussed and it is revealed that, for relatively thick and deep shells, the Amabili–Reddy theory which retains all the nonlinear terms in the in-plane displacements gives different and more accurate results.     

Three-dimensional free vibration analysis of functionally graded annular plates using the Chebyshev–Ritz method

The aim of this paper is to investigate three-dimensional free vibration of functionally graded annular plates with different boundary conditions using the Chebyshev–Ritz method, in which a set of duplicate Chebyshev polynomial series multiplied by the boundary function satisfying the boundary conditions are chosen as the trial functions of the displacement components. Two kinds of variations of material properties in the thickness direction of the plates are considered. Convergence of the Chebyshev–Ritz method is checked. Numerical results are given and compared with the previously published solutions.     

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.