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.