Nonlinear analysis of stability for functionally graded plates under mechanical and thermal loads

This paper presents a simple analytical approach to investigate the stability of functionally graded plates under in-plane compressive, thermal and combined loads. Material properties are assumed to be temperature-independent, and graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of constituents. Equilibrium and compatibility equations for functionally graded plates are derived by using the classical plate theory taking into account both geometrical nonlinearity in von Karman sense and initial geometrical imperfection. The resulting equations are solved by Galerkin procedure to obtain explicit expressions of postbuckling load–deflection curves. Stability analysis of a simply supported rectangular functionally graded plate shows the effects of the volume fraction index, plate geometry, in-plane boundary conditions, and imperfection on postbuckling behavior of the plate.     

Three-dimensional solution of axisymmetric bending of functionally graded circular plates

Based on three-dimensional theory, this paper investigates the axisymmetric bending of transversely isotropic and functionally graded circular plates subject to arbitrarily transverse loads using the direct displacement method. The material properties can arbitrarily vary along the thickness of the plate. The transverse load is expanded in the Fourier–Bessel series and superposition principle is then used to obtain the total response based on the results of each item of the series. For one item of the series of the load, we assume the distributions of the displacements in the radial direction and therefore only the distributions of the displacements in thickness direction are required to find. If the material properties vary in an exponential law, the exact solutions can be obtained for elastic simple support and rigid slipping support, which are satisfied on the every point of the boundaries. Moreover, the analytical solutions are also presented for simply supported and clamped conditions, which are satisfied using Saint Venant principle. Simultaneously, through the layerwise method a semi-analytical solution is proposed for the case of arbitrary variation of the material properties. Finally the numerical examples are presented to verify the proposed method.     

Elastic response of functionally graded circular plates under a drop-weight

The three-dimensional impact behaviours of functionally graded (FG) circular plates were studied under a drop-weight. The functionally graded circular plate was composed of ceramic (SiC) and metal (Al) phases and the through-thickness mechanical properties through the region between the metal and ceramic layers vary continuously according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the ceramic. The through-thickness material properties of the FG circular plate were determined using the Mori–Tanaka scheme. The effects of layer number and compositional gradient exponent as well as impactor velocity and plate radius on the elastic impact response of the FG circular plates were investigated. The compositional gradient exponent, impactor velocity and plate radius played an important role on the impact response of the FG circular plates, whereas the layer number through the plate thickness had a minor effect. In addition, the failure strains in all layers were determined using Tamura–Tomota–Ozowa (TTO) model in order to predict the damage regions in each layer through the thickness of FG circular plates.     

Large deflection behavior of functionally graded plates under pressure loads

Large deflection analysis of rectangular functionally graded plates is studied in this paper. It is assumed that the mechanical properties of the plate, graded through the thickness, are described by a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of constituents. The plate is assumed to be under pressure load. The fundamental equations for rectangular plates of FGM are obtained using the Von-Karman theory for large deflection and the solution is obtained by minimization of the total potential energy. Numerical results for rectangular functionally graded plates are given in dimensionless graphical forms. The effects of material properties on the stress field through the thickness are determined and discussed.     

An elasticity solution for transversely isotropic,functionally graded circular plates

This article presents a new elasticity solution for transversely isotropic, functionally graded circular plates subject to axisymmetric loads. It is assumed that the material properties vary along the thickness of a circular plate according to an exponential form. By extending the displacement function presented by Plevako to the case of transversely isotropic material, we derived the governing equation of the problem studied. The displacement function was assumed as the sum of the Bessel function and polynomial function to obtain the analytical solution of a transversely isotropic, functionally graded circular plate under different boundary conditions. As a numerical example, the influence of the graded variations of the material properties on the displacements and stresses was studied. The results demonstrate that the graded variations have a significant effect on the mechanical behavior of a circular plate.     

Nonlinear vibration of smart circular functionally graded plates coupled with piezoelectric layers

Nonlinear vibration analysis of thin circular pre-stressed functionally graded (FG) plate integrated with two uniformly distributed piezoelectric actuator layers with an initial nonlinear large deformation are presented in this paper. Nonlinear governing equations of motion are derived based on classical plate theory (CPT) with von-Karman type geometrical large nonlinear deformations. A nonlinear static problem is solved first to determine the initial stress state and pre-vibration deformations of the plate that is subjected to in-plane forces and applied actuator voltage. By adding an incremental dynamic state to the pre-vibration state, the differential equations that govern the nonlinear vibration behavior of pre-stressed piezoelectrically actuated circular FG plate are derived. An exact series expansion method is used to model the nonlinear electro-mechanical vibration behavior of the structure. Control of the FG plate’s nonlinear deflections and natural frequencies using high control voltages are studied and their nonlinear effects are evaluated. In a parametric study the emphasis is placed on investigating the effect of varying the applied actuator voltage as well as gradient index of FG plate on the dynamic characteristics of the structure.     

Nonlinear aero-thermoelastic analysis of homogeneous and functionally graded plates in supersonic airflow using coupled models

In this paper, the aeroelastic behavior of homogeneous and functionally graded two- and three-dimensional flat plates is studied under supersonic airflow. The effects of coupled modeling of the aerodynamic heating with flight conditions and the thermal degradation of the plate are investigated, too. The von-Karman nonlinear strains, piston theory and a combination of simple rule of mixtures and the Mori–Tanaka scheme are used to model the structure, aerodynamic and material, respectively. The derived equations of motion are solved using Galerkin’s procedure along with the Runge–Kutta numerical technique. Finally, some examples are solved using the developed program and some conclusions are made. It is shown that under real flight conditions and using coupled model, the aerodynamic heating is very severe and the type of instability is divergence.     

Mixed-mode dynamic crack propagation in graded materials under thermo-mechanical loading

Mixed-mode dynamic crack growth behavior in functionally graded materials (FGMs) under thermo-mechanical loading is studied. Asymptotic analysis in conjunction with displacement potentials has been used to develop thermo-mechanical stress fields for a mixed mode propagating crack in a FGM. The shear modulus, mass density, thermal conductivity and coefficient of thermal expansion of the FGM are assumed to vary exponentially along the gradation direction. First, asymptotic temperature fields are derived for an exponential variation of thermal conductivity and later these temperature fields are used in deriving stress fields. Using asymptotic thermo-mechanical stress fields the variation of maximum shear stress, circumferential stress and strain-energy density as a function of temperature around the crack tip are generated. Finally, utilizing the minimum strain-energy density criterion and the maximum circumferential stress criterion, the crack growth direction for various crack-tip speeds, non-homogeneity coefficients and temperature fields are determined.     

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.     

Nonlinear response of pressure-loaded functionally graded cylindrical panels with temperature effects

This paper presents an analytical approach to investigate nonlinear response of functionally graded cylindrical panels under uniform lateral pressure with temperature effects are incorporated. Material properties are assumed to be temperature-independent, and graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of constituents. Equilibrium and compatibility equations for cylindrical panels are derived by using the classical shell theory with both geometrical nonlinearity in von Karman–Donnell sense and initial geometrical imperfection are taken into consideration. The resulting equations are solved by Galerkin method to determine explicit expressions of nonlinear load-deflection curves. Stability analysis for a simply supported panel shows the effects of material and geometric parameters, in-plane restraint and temperature conditions, and imperfection on the nonlinear response of the panel.     

The elasto-plastic impact analysis of functionally graded circular plates under low-velocities

In this study, three-dimensional elasto-plastic analysis of functionally graded (FG) circular plates under low-velocity impact loads is presented. The FG circular plate is composed of ceramic (SiC) and metal (Al) phases, varying in a predetermined fashion through the plate thickness. The elasto-plastic behaviour of the FG circular plate is described by the TTO model. In the analyses, the ceramic phase is taken to be an isotropic elastic material whereas the metal phase is taken to be elasto-plastic material in accordance with the TTO model. The locally effective material properties were evaluated using homogenization method which is based on the Mori–Tanaka scheme. The effects of compositional gradient exponent and impactor velocity on the elasto-plastic impact response of the FG circular plates are investigated, and results are presented graphical form. The compositional gradient exponent and impactor velocity have significant effects on the elasto-plastic impact response of the FG circular plates. The elasto-plastic impact response of FG circular plates is similar to those of homogeneous plates. Therefore, the TTO model can be used to describe the mechanical behaviour of FG plates beyond the elastic range, assuming that the material response is essentially governed by the spreading of plasticity in the metal phase.     

Performance of functionally graded sandwich composite beams under shock wave loading

The dynamic behavior of sandwich composites made of E-Glass Vinyl-Ester (EVE) facesheets and graded Corecell™ A-series foam was studied using a shock tube apparatus. The foam core was monotonically graded based on increasing acoustic wave impedance, with the foam core layer of lowest wave impedance facing the blast. The specimen dimensions were held constant for all core configurations, while the number of core layers varied, resulting in specimens with one layer, two layer, three layer, and four layers of foam core gradation. Prior to shock tube testing, the quasi-static and dynamic constitutive behavior (compressive) of each type of foam was evaluated. During the shock tube testing, high-speed photography coupled with the optical technique of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was utilized to capture the real-time deformation process as well as mechanisms of failure. Post-mortem analysis was also carried out to evaluate the overall blast performance of these configurations. The results indicated that increasing the number of monotonically graded foam core layers, thus reducing the acoustic wave impedance mismatch between successive layers, helped maintain structural integrity and increased the blast performance of the sandwich composite.     

Nonlinear theories of axisymmetric bending of functionally graded circular plates with modified couple stress

A microstructure-dependent nonlinear theory for axisymmetric bending of circular plates, which accounts for through-thickness power-law variation of a two-constituent material, is developed using the principle of virtual displacements. The formulation is based on a modified couple stress theory, power-law variation of the material, temperature-dependent properties, and the von Kármán geometric nonlinearity. Classical and first-order shear deformation theories are considered in the study. The modified couple stress theory contains a material length scale parameter that can capture the size effect in a functionally graded material plate. The theories presented herein can be used to develop analytical solutions of bending, buckling, and free vibration for the linear case and finite-element models for the nonlinear case to determine the effect of the geometric nonlinearity, power-law index, and microstructure-dependent constitutive relations on linear and nonlinear response of axisymmetric analysis of circular plates.     

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.     

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.     

Nonlinear dynamics of FGM circular cylindrical shell with clamped-clamped edges

An analysis on the nonlinear dynamics of a clamped-clamped FGM circular cylindrical shell subjected to an external excitation and uniform temperature change is presented in this paper. Material properties of the constituents are assumed to be temperature-independent and the effective properties of FGM cylindrical shell are graded in thickness direction according to a simple power law function in terms of the volume fractions. Based on the first-order shear deformation shell theory and von Karman type nonlinear strain-displacement relationship, the nonlinear governing equations of motion are derived by using Hamilton’s principle. Galerkin’s method is then utilized to discretize the governing partial equations to a two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear system including the quadratic and cubic nonlinear terms under combined external excitations. Numerical results including the bifurcations, waveform, phase plots and Poincare maps are presented for clamped-clamped FGM cylindrical shells showing the influences of material gradient index, the thickness and the external loading on the nonlinear dynamics.     

Nonlinear free and forced vibration behavior of functionally graded plate with piezoelectric layers in thermal environment

In the present study, finite element formulation based on higher order shear deformation plate theory is developed to analyze nonlinear natural frequencies, time and frequency responses of functionally graded plate with surface-bonded piezoelectric layers under thermal, electrical and mechanical loads. The von Karman nonlinear strain–displacement relationship is used to account for the large deflection of the plate. The material properties of functionally graded material (FGM) are assumed temperature-dependent. The temperature field has uniform distribution over the plate surface and varies in the thickness direction. The considered electric field only has non-zero-valued component E_z. Numerical results are presented to study effects of FGM volume fraction exponent, applied voltage in piezoelectric layers, thermal load and vibration amplitude on nonlinear natural frequencies and time response of FGM plate with integrated piezoelectric layers. In addition, nonlinear frequency response diagrams of the plate are presented and effects of different parameters such as FGM volume fraction exponent, temperature gradient, and piezoelectric voltage are investigated.     

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.     

Theoretical analysis of a functionally graded shape memory alloy plate under graded temperature loading

As a new kind of functional material, functionally graded shape memory alloy (FG-SMA) possesses the excellent properties of both shape memory alloy (SMA) and functionally graded material (FGM). By combining the heat conduction theory with the theory of the mechanics of composite materials, a macro constitutive model, which can be used to describe the mechanical behavior of FG-SMA under graded temperature loading, is established. With this macro constitutive model, the thermo-mechanical properties of an FG-SMA plate, which is composed by ceramic and SMA and subjected to different surface temperature loads, are investigated. The theoretical results show good agreement with the existing data, which indicates that the macro constitutive model provided here is valid. The obtained results show that the martensite transformation does not always happen first at the top or bottom of the plate, and it is dependent on the surface temperatures. It can also be found that the stress decreases markedly due to the martensite transformation. This research can provide a basis for the design and in-depth investigation of FG-SMA material.     

Modeling of functionally graded smart plates with gradient elasticity effects

ABSTRACT

In this article, the equations of motion for functionally graded plates with surface-mounted piezoelectric layers, while accounting for the gradient elasticity through the modified couple stress model and linear piezoelectricity, are derived using Hamilton’s principle. The formulation includes the coupling between mechanical deformations and the charge equations of electrostatics. The mathematical model developed herein is an equivalent single layer theory for mechanical displacement field and the potential functions. The in-plane displacements are assumed to vary as cubic functions of the thickness coordinate while the transverse displacement is assumed to vary as a quadratic function of the thickness coordinate through plate thickness. The potential function is assumed as the combination of half cosine variation of electric potential and linear variation of applied voltage on outer surfaces. The approach described here is that standard plate models can be enhanced to include the coupling between the charge equations and the mechanical deformations as well as the size dependent effect of micro- and nano-scale structures. An analytical solution of the developed model is presented using the Navier solution technique. A parametric study is performed to study the effect of material variation through thickness of plates, length scale parameters to capture the size-dependent effects, and thickness ratio between piezoelectric layers and the whole plate.