• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2023

The use of functionally graded materials in applications involving severe thermal gradients is quickly gaining acceptance in the composite mechanics community, the aerospace and aircraft industry. In the present study, a refined sandwich plate model is applied to study the free vibration analysis of porous functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates with various distribution rate of porosity. Two types of common FG sandwich plates are considered. The first sandwich plate is composed of two FG material (FGM) face sheets and a homogeneous ceramic or metal core. The second one consists of two homogeneous fully metal and ceramic face sheets at the top and bottom, respectively, and a FGM core. The displacement field of the present theory is chosen based on nonlinear variations in the in-plane displacements through the thickness of the sandwich plate. The number of unknowns and equations of motion of the present theory is reduced and hence makes them simple to use. In the analysis, the equation of motion for simply supported sandwich plates is obtained using Hamilton's principle. In order to present the effect of the variation of the porosity distribution on the dynamic behavior of the FGM sandwich plates, new mixtures are proposed which take into account different rate of porosity distribution between the ceramic and the metal. The present method is applicable to study the dynamic behavior of FGM plates and sandwich plates. The frequencies of two kinds of FGM sandwich structures are analyzed and discussed. Several numerical results have been compared with the ones available in the literature.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.1033-1048
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• 2016

An analytical solution based on the neutral surface concept is developed to study the free vibration behavior of simply supported functionally graded plate reposed on the elastic foundation by taking into account the effect of transverse shear deformations. No transversal shear correction factors are needed because a correct representation of the transversal shearing strain obtained by using a new refined shear deformation theory. The foundation is described by the Winkler-Pasternak model. The Young's modulus of the plate is assumed to vary continuously through the thickness according to a power law formulation, and the Poisson ratio is held constant. The equation of motion for FG rectangular plates resting on elastic foundation is obtained through Hamilton's principle. Numerical examples are provided to show the effect of foundation stiffness parameters presented for thick to thin plates and for various values of the gradient index, aspect and side to thickness ratio. It was found that the proposed theory predicts the fundamental frequencies very well with the ones available in literature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.497-517
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• 2015

In this study, nonlocal nonlinear buckling analysis of embedded polymeric temperature-dependent microplates resting on an elastic matrix as orthotropic temperature-dependent elastomeric medium is investigated. The microplate is reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in which the equivalent material properties nanocomposite are estimated based on the rule of mixture. For the carbon-nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) plate, both cases of uniform distribution (UD) and functionally graded (FG) distribution patterns of SWCNT reinforcements are considered. The small size effects of microplate are considered based on Eringen's nonlocal theory. Based on orthotropic Mindlin plate theory along with von K$\acute{a}$rm$\acute{a}$n geometric nonlinearity and Hamilton's principle, the governing equations are derived. Generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) is applied for obtaining the buckling load of system. The effects of different parameters such as nonlocal parameters, volume fractions of SWCNTs, distribution type of SWCNTs in polymer, elastomeric medium, aspect ratio, boundary condition, orientation of foundation orthtotropy direction and temperature are considered on the nonlinear buckling of the microplate. Results indicate that CNT distribution close to top and bottom are more efficient than those distributed nearby the mid-plane for increasing the buckling load.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.257-276
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• 2016

In this paper, a new simple higher-order shear deformation theory for bending and free vibration analysis of functionally graded (FG) plates is developed. The significant feature of this formulation is that, in addition to including a sinusoidal variation of transverse shear strains through the thickness of the plate, it deals with only three unknowns as the classical plate theory (CPT), instead of five as in the well-known first shear deformation theory (FSDT) and higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). A shear correction factor is, therefore, not required. Equations of motion are derived from Hamilton's principle. Analytical solutions for the bending and free vibration analysis are obtained for simply supported plates. The accuracy of the present solutions is verified by comparing the obtained results with those predicted by classical theory, first-order shear deformation theory, and higher-order shear deformation theory. Verification studies show that the proposed theory is not only accurate and simple in solving the bending and free vibration behaviours of FG plates, but also comparable with the other higher-order shear deformation theories which contain more number of unknowns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.273-287
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• 2018

Buckling and free vibration analysis of sandwich micro plate (SMP) integrated with piezoelectric layers embedded in orthotropic Pasternak are investigated in this paper. The refined Zigzag theory (RZT) is taken into consideration to model the SMP. Four different types of functionally graded (FG) distribution through the thickness of the SMP core layer which is reinforced with single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are considered. The modified couple stress theory (MCST) is employed to capture the effects of small scale effects. The sandwich structure is exposed to a two dimensional magnetic field and also, piezoelectric layers are subjected to external applied voltages. In order to obtain governing equation, energy method as well as Hamilton's principle is applied. Based on an analytical solution the critical buckling loads and natural frequency are obtained. The effects of volume fraction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), different distributions of CNTs, foundation stiffness parameters, magnetic and electric fields, small scale parameter and the thickness of piezoelectric layers on the both critical buckling loads and natural frequency of the SMP are examined. The obtained results demonstrate that the effects of volume fraction of CNTs play an important role in analyzing buckling and free vibration behavior of the SMP. Furthermore, the effects of magnetic and electric fields are remarkable on the mechanical responses of the system and cannot be neglected.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.5
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• pp.555-563
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• 2020

The objective of present paper is assessment of dynamic buckling behavior of an embedded sandwich microplates in thermal environment in which the layers are reinforced through functionally graded carbon nanotubes (FG-CNTs). Therefore, mixture rule is taken into consideration for obtaining effective material characteristics. In order to model this structure much more realistic, Kelvin-Voigt model is presumed and the sandwich structure is rested on visco-Pasternak medium. Exponential shear deformation theory (ESDT) in addition to Eringen's nonlocal theory are utilized to obtain motion equations. Further, differential cubature method (DCM) as well as Bolotin's procedure are used to solve governing equations and achieve dynamic instability region (DIR) related to sandwich structure. Different parameters focusing on volume percent of CNTs, dispersion kinds of CNTs, thermal environment, small scale effect and structural damping and their influences upon the dynamic behavior of sandwich structure are investigated. So as to indicate the accuracy of applied theories as well as methods, the results are collated with another paper. According to results, presence of CNTs and their dispersion kind can alter system's dynamic response as well.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.3
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• pp.293-304
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• 2019

In this paper, a general model is developed to predict the distribution of interfacial shear and normal stresses of FG beam reinforced by porous FGM plates under mechanical loading. The beam is assumed to be isotropic with a constant Poisson's ratio and power law elastic modulus through the beam thickness. Stress distributions, depending on an inhomogeneity constant, were calculated and presented in graphicals forms. It is shown that both the normal and shear stresses at the interface are influenced by the material and geometry parameters of the composite beam, and it is shown that the inhomogeneities play an important role in the distribution of interfacial stresses. The results presented in the paper can serve as a benchmark for future analyses of functionally graded beams strengthened by imperfect varying properties plates. Numerical comparisons between the existing solutions and the present new solution enable a clear appreciation of the effects of various parameters. The results of this study indicated that the imperfect functionally graded panel strengthening systems are effective in enhancing flexural behavior of the strengthened FGM beams. This research is helpful in understanding the mechanical behaviour of the interface and design of hybrid structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.839-850
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• 2022

This paper presents an analytical solution to study the combined effect of non-local and stretching effect on the vibration of advanced functionally graded (FG) nanoplates. A new quasi-3D plate theory is presented; there are only five unknowns and any shear correction factor is used. A new displacement field with a new shear warping function is proposed. The equilibrium equations of the FG nanoplates are obtained using the Hamilton principle and solved numerically using the Navier technique. The material properties of functionally graded nanoplates are presumed to change according to the power-law distribution of ceramic and metal constituents. The numerical results of this work are compared with those of other published results to indicate the accuracy and convergence of this theory. Hence, a profound parameterstudy is also performed to show the influence of many parameters of the functionally graded nanoplates on the free vibration responses is investigated.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.19-32
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• 2024

Functionally graded-carbon nanotube (FG-CNT) is expected to be a new generation of materials with a wide range of potential applications in technological fields such as aerospace, defense, energy, and structural industries. In this paper, an exact finite strip method for functionally graded-carbon nanotube sandwich plates is developed using first-order shear deformation theory to get the exact natural frequencies of the plates. The face sheets of the plates are made of FG-CNT with continuous and smooth grading based on the power law index. The equations of motion have been generated based on the Hamilton principle. By extracting the exact stiffness matrix for any strip of the sandwich plate as a non-algebraic function of natural frequencies, it is possible to calculate the exact free vibration frequencies. The accuracy and efficiency of the current method is established by comparing its findings to the results of the literature works. Examples are presented to prove the efficiency of the generated method to deal with various problems, such as the influence of the length-to-height ratio, the power law index, and a core-to-face sheet thickness of the single and multi-span sandwich plates with various boundary conditions on the natural frequencies. The exact results obtained from this analysis can check the validity and accuracy of other numerical methods.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 2020

By employing a quasi-3D plate formulation, the present research studies static stability of magneto-electro-thermo-elastic functional grading (METE-FG) nano-sized plates. Accordingly, influences of shear deformations as well as thickness stretching have been incorporated. The gradation of piezo-magnetic and elastic properties of the nano-sized plate have been described based on power-law functions. The size-dependent formulation for the nano-sized plate is provided in the context of nonlocal elasticity theory. The governing equations are established with the usage of Hamilton's rule and then analytically solved for diverse magnetic-electric intensities. Obtained findings demonstrate that buckling behavior of considered nanoplate relies on the variation of material exponent, electro-magnetic field, nonlocal coefficient and boundary conditions.