• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.387-405
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• 2018

A novel higher shear deformation theory (HSDT) is proposed for the bending, buckling and free vibration investigations of isotropic and functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates. It contains only four variables, which is even less than the first shear deformation theory (FSDT) and the conventional HSDTs. The model accounts for a parabolic variation of transverse shear stress, respects the traction free boundary conditions and contrary to the conventional HSDTs, the present one presents a novel displacement field which incorporates undetermined integral terms. Equations of motion determined in this work are applied for three types of FG structures: FG plates, sandwich plates with FG core and sandwich plates with FG faces. Analytical solutions are given to predict the transverse displacements, stresses, critical buckling forces and natural frequencies of simply supported plates and a comparison study is carried out to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed model.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.623-631
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• 2017

Present paper deals with the temperature-dependent buckling analysis of sandwich nanocomposite plates resting on elastic medium subjected to magnetic field. The lamina layers are reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as uniform and functionally graded (FG). The elastic medium is considered as orthotropic Pasternak foundation with considering the effects of thermal loading on the spring and shear constants of medium. Mixture rule is utilized for obtaining the effective material properties of each layer. Adopting the Reddy shear deformation plate theory, the governing equations are derived based on energy method and Hamilton's principle. The buckling load of the structure is calculated with the Navier's method for the simply supported sandwich nanocomposite plates. Parametric study is conducted on the combined effects of the volume percent and distribution types of the CNTs, temperature change, elastic medium, magnetic field and geometrical parameters of the plates on the buckling load of the sandwich structure. The results show that FGX distribution of the CNTs leads to higher stiffness and consequently higher buckling load. In addition, considering the magnetic field increases the buckling load of the sandwich nanocomposite plate.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.595-610
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• 2019

This paper deals with the static and dynamic behavior of Functionally Graded Carbon Nanotubes (FG-CNT)-reinforced porous sandwich (PMPV) polymer plate. The model of nanocomposite plate is investigated within the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT). Two types of porous sandwich plates are supposed (sandwich with face sheets reinforced / homogeneous core and sandwich with homogeneous face sheets / reinforced core). Functionally graded Carbon Nanotubes (FG-CNT) and uniformly Carbon Nanotubes (UD-CNT) distributions of face sheets or core porous plates with uniaxially aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes are considered. The governing equations are derived by using Hamilton's principle. The solution for bending and vibration of such type's porous plates are obtained. The detailed mathematical derivations are provided and the solutions are compared to some cases in the literature. The effect of the several parameters of reinforced sandwich porous plates such as aspect ratios, volume fraction, types of reinforcement, number of modes and thickness of plate on the bending and vibration analyses are studied and discussed. On the question of porosity, this study found that there is a great influence of their variation on the static and vibration of porous sandwich plate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.6
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• pp.797-807
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• 2021

A new simple solution for critical buckling of FG sandwich plates under axial and biaxial loads is presented using new modified power-law formulations. Both even and uneven distributions of porosity are taken into account in this study. Material properties of the sandwich plate faces are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a modified power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. Equilibrium and stability equations of FG sandwich plate with various boundary conditions are derived using the higher-order shear deformation plate theory. The results reveal that the distribution shape of the porosity, the gradient index, loading type and functionally graded layers thickness have significant influence on the buckling response of functionally graded sandwich plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.873-886
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• 2021

In this paper, an analytical solution for thermodynamic response of functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates resting on variable elastic foundation is performed by using a quasi 3D shear deformation plate theory. The displacement field used in the present study contains undetermined integral terms and involves only four unknown functions with including stretching effect. The FG sandwich plate is considered to be subject to a time harmonic sinusoidal temperature field across its thickness with any combined boundary conditions. Equations of motion are derived from Hamilton's principle. The numerical results are compared with the existing results of quasi-3D shear deformation theories and an excellent agreement is observed. Several numerical examples for fundamental frequency, deflection, stress and variable elastic foundation parameter's analysis of FG sandwich plates are presented and discussed considering different material gradients, layer thickness ratios, thickness-to-length ratios and boundary conditions. The results of the present study reveal that the nature of the elastic foundation, the boundary conditions and the thermodynamic loading affect the response of the FG plate especially in the case of a thick plate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.5
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• pp.571-589
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• 2019

This paper aims to develop a quasi-3D shear deformation theory for the study of bending, buckling and free vibration responses of functionally graded (FG) sandwich thick plates. For that, in the present theory, both the components of normal deformation and shear strain are included. The displacement field of the proposed model contains undetermined integral terms and involves only four unknown functions with including stretching effect. Using Navier's technique the solution of the problem is derived for simply supported sandwich plate. Numerical results have been reported, and compared with those available in the open literature were excellent agreement was observed. Finally, a detailed parametric study is presented to demonstrate the effect of the different parameters on the flexural responses, free vibration and buckling of a simply supported sandwich plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.2
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• pp.103-119
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• 2024

The present research investigates the thermodynamically bending behavior of FG sandwich plates, laying on the Winkler/Pasternak/Kerr foundation with various boundary conditions, subjected to harmonic thermal load varying through thickness. The supposed FG sandwich plate has three layers with a ceramic core. The constituents' volume fractions of the lower and upper faces vary gradually in the direction of the FG sandwich plate thickness. This variation is performed according to various models: a Power law, Trigonometric, Viola-Tornabene, and the Exponential model, while the core is constantly homogeneous. The displacement field considered in the current work contains integral terms and fewer unknowns than other theories in the literature. The corresponding equations of motion are derived based on Hamilton's principle. The impact of the distribution model, scheme, aspect ratio, side-to-thickness ratio, boundary conditions, and elastic foundations on thermodynamic bending are examined in this study. The deflections obtained for the sandwich plate without elastic foundations have the lowest values for all boundary conditions. In addition, the minimum deflection values are obtained for the exponential volume fraction law model. The sandwich plate's non-dimensional deflection increases as the aspect ratio increases for all distribution models.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.117-127
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• 2022

This study investigates the wave propagation in porous functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates subjected to hygrothermal environments. A new simple three-unknown first-ordershear deformation theory (FSDT) incorporating an integral term is utilized in this paper. Only three unknowns are used to formulate the governing differential equation by applying the Hamilton principle. The FG layer of the sandwich plate is modeled using the power-law function with evenly distributed porosities to represent the defects of the manufacturing process. The plate is subjected to nonlinear hygrothermal changes across the thickness. The effects of the power-law exponent, core to thickness ratios, porosity volume, and the relations between volume fraction and wave properties of porous FG plate under the hygrothermal environment are investigated. The results showed that the waves' phase velocities increase linearly with the waves number in the FGM plate. The porosity of the FG materials plate has a noticeable impact on the phase velocity when considering the high ratios of the core layer. It has a negligible effect on small core layers. Finally, it is observed that changing temperatures and moistures do not influence the relationship between the power law and the phase velocity.

• 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.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.541-557
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• 2018

This paper presents the influence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) waviness and aspect ratio on the vibrational behavior of functionally graded nanocomposite sandwich annular sector plates resting on two-parameter elastic foundations. The carbon nanotube-reinforced (CNTR) sandwich plate has smooth variation of CNT fraction along the thickness direction. The distributions of CNTs are considered functionally graded (FG) or uniform along the thickness and their mechanical properties are estimated by an extended rule of mixture. In this study, the classical theory concerning the mechanical efficiency of a matrix embedding finite length fibers has been modified by introducing the tube-to-tube random contact, which explicitly accounts for the progressive reduction of the tubes' effective aspect ratio as the filler content increases. Effects of CNT distribution, volume fraction, aspect ratio and waviness, and also effects of Pasternak's elastic foundation coefficients, sandwich plate thickness, face sheets thickness and plate aspect ratio are investigated on the free vibration of the sandwich plates with wavy CNT-reinforced face sheets. The study is carried out based on three-dimensional theory of elasticity and in contrary to two-dimensional theories, such as classical, the first- and the higher-order shear deformation plate theories, this approach does not neglect transverse normal deformations. The sandwich annular sector plate is assumed to be simply supported in the radial edges while any arbitrary boundary conditions are applied to the other two circular edges including simply supported, clamped and free.