• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.547-565
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• 2016

In this work a new 3-unknown non-polynomial shear deformation theory for the buckling and vibration analyses of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates is presented. The present theory accounts for non-linear in plane displacement and constant transverse displacement through the plate thickness, complies with plate surface boundary conditions, and in this manner a shear correction factor is not required. The main advantage of this theory is that, in addition to including the shear deformation effect, the displacement field is modelled with only 3 unknowns as the case of the classical plate theory (CPT) and which is even less than the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The plate properties are assumed to vary according to a power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. Equations of motion are derived from the Hamilton's principle. Analytical solutions of natural frequency and critical buckling load for functionally graded sandwich plates are obtained using the Navier solution. The results obtained for plate with various thickness ratios using the present non-polynomial plate theory are not only substantially more accurate than those obtained using the classical plate theory, but are almost comparable to those obtained using higher order theories with more number of unknown functions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.401-415
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• 2017

A new higher shear deformation theory (HSDT) is presented for the thermal buckling behavior of functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates. It uses only four unknowns, which is even less than the first shear deformation theory (FSDT) and the conventional HSDTs. The theory considers a hyperbolic variation of transverse shear stress, respects the traction free boundary conditions and contrary to the conventional HSDTs, the present one presents a new displacement field which includes undetermined integral terms. Material characteristics and thermal expansion coefficient of the sandwich plate faces are considered 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. The thermal loads are supposed as uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises within the thickness direction. An energy based variational principle is used to derive the governing equations as an eigenvalue problem. The validation of the present work is carried out with the available results in the literature. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the influences of variations of volume fraction index, length-thickness ratio, loading type and functionally graded layers thickness on nondimensional thermal buckling loads.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.2
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• pp.233-246
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• 2023

Bending and buckling analysis of multi-directional porous functionally graded sandwich plate has been performed for two cases namely: FG skin with homogeneous core and FG core with homogeneous skin. The principle of virtual displacements was employed and the solution was obtained using Navier's technique. This theory imposes traction-free boundary conditions on the surfaces and does not require shear correction factors. The validation of the present study has been performed with those available in the literature. The composition of metal-ceramic-based FGM changes in longitudinal and transverse directions according to the power law. Different porosity laws, such as uniform distribution, unevenly and logarithmically uneven distributions were used to mimic the imperfections in the functionally graded material that were introduced during the fabrication process. Several sandwich plates schemes were studied based on the plate's symmetry and the thickness of each layer. The effects of grading parameters and porosity laws on the bending and buckling of sandwich plates were examined.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.111-135
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• 2014

Based on the Reissner mixed variational theorem (RMVT), finite rectangular layer methods (FRLMs) are developed for the three-dimensional (3D) linear buckling analysis of simply-supported, fiber-reinforced composite material (FRCM) and functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates subjected to bi-axial compressive loads. In this work, the material properties of the FGM layers are assumed to obey the power-law distributions of the volume fractions of the constituents through the thickness, and the plate is divided into a number of finite rectangular layers, in which the trigonometric functions and Lagrange polynomials are used to interpolate the in- and out-of-plane variations of the field variables of each individual layer, respectively, and an h-refinement process is adopted to yield the convergent solutions. The accuracy and convergence of the RMVT-based FRLMs with various orders used for expansions of each field variables through the thickness are assessed by comparing their solutions with the exact 3D and accurate two-dimensional ones available in the literature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.337-357
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• 2000

Analytical formulations and solutions for the first time, to the stability analysis of a simply supported composite and sandwich plates based on a higher order refined theory, developed by the first author and already reported in the literature are presented. The theoretical model presented herein incorporates laminate deformations which account for the effects of transverse shear deformation, transverse normal strain/stress and a nonlinear variation of inplane displacements with respect to the thickness coordinate - thus modelling the warping of transverse cross sections more accurately and eliminating the need for shear correction coefficients. The equations of equilibrium are obtained using the Principle of Minimum Potential Energy (PMPE). The comparison of the results using this higher order refined theory with the available elasticity solutions and the results computed independently using the first order and the other higher order theories developed by other investigators and available in the literature shows that this refined theory predicts the critical buckling load more accurately than all other theories considered in this paper. New results for sandwich laminates are also presented which may serve as a benchmark for future investigations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.389-401
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• 2017

In this work, a new higher shear deformation theory (HSDT) is developed for the free vibration and buckling of functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates. The proposed theory presents a new displacement field by using undetermined integral terms. Only four unknowns are employed in this theory, which is less than the classical first shear deformation theory (FSDT) and others HSDTs. Equations of motion are obtained via Hamilton's principle. The analytical solutions of FG sandwich plates are determined by employing the Navier method. A good agreement between the computed results and the available solutions of existing HSDTs is found to prove the accuracy of the developed theory.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.8 s.185
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• pp.127-136
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• 2006

Metallic sandwich plates with inner dimpled shell subject to 3-point bending have been analyzed and then optimized for minimum weight. Inner dimpled shells can be easily fabricated by press or roll with high precision and bonded with same material skin sheets by resistance welding or adhesive bonding. Metallic sandwich plates with inner dimpled shell structure can be optimally designed for minimum weight subject to prescribed combination of bending and transverse shear loads. Fundamental findings for lightweight design are presented through constrained optimization. Failure responses of sandwich plates are predicted and formulated with an assumption of narrow sandwich beam theory. Failure is attributed to four kinds of mechanisms: face yielding, face buckling, dimple buckling and dimple collapse. Optimized shape of inner dimpled shell structure is a hemispherical shell to minimize weight without failure. It is demonstrated that bending stiffness of sandwich plate is 2 or 3 times larger than solid plates with the same strength. Failure mode boundaries and iso-strength lines dependent upon the geometry and yield strain of the material are plotted with respect to geometric parameters on the failure map. Because optimal parameters of maximum strength for given material weight can be selected from the map, analytic solutions for maximum strength are expressed as a function of only material property and proposed strength. These optimal parameters match well with numerical optimal parameters.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.363-376
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• 2001

Sandwich plates are widely used in lightweight design due to their high strength and stiffness to weight ratio. Due to the heterogeneous structure of sandwich plates, they can exhibit local instabilities (wrinkling), which lead to a sudden loss of stiffness in the structure. This paper presents an analytical solution to the wrinkling problem of sandwich plates. The solution is based on the Rayleigh-Ritz method, by assuming an appropriate deformation field. In contrast to the other approaches up to now, this model takes arbitrary and different orthotropic face layers, finite core thickness and orthotropic core material into account. This approach is the first to cover the wrinkling of unsymmetric sandwiches and sandwiches composed of orthotropic FRP face layers, which are most common in advanced lightweight design. Despite the generality of the solution, the computational effort is kept within bounds. The results have been verified using other analytical solutions and unit cell 3D FE calculations.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.439-454
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• 2023

In this article, the surface stress effects on the buckling analysis of the annular sandwich plate is developed. The proposed plate is composed of two face layers made of carbon nanotubes (CNT) reinforced composite with assuming of fully bonded to functionally graded porous core. The generalized rule of the mixture is employed to predict the mechanical properties of the microcomposite sandwich plate. The derived potentials energy based on higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and modified couple stress theory (MCST) is solved by employing the Ritz method. An exact analytical solution is presented to calculate the critical buckling loads of the annular sandwich plate. The predicted results are validated by carrying out the comparison studies for the buckling analysis of annular plates with those obtained by other analytical and finite element methods. The effects of various parameters such as material length scale parameter, core thickness to total thickness ratio (hc/h), surface elastic constants based on surface stress effect, various boundary condition and porosity distributions, size of the internal pores (e0), Skempton coefficient and elastic foundation on the critical buckling load have been studied. The results can be served as benchmark data for future works and also in the design of materials science, injunction high-pressure micropipe connections, nanotechnology, and smart systems.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.291-305
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• 2016

In this paper, a refined shear deformation plate theory which eliminates the use of a shear correction factor was presented for FG sandwich plates composed of FG face sheets and an isotropic homogeneous core. The theory accounts for parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strains and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate. The mechanical properties of the plate are assumed to vary continuously in the thickness direction by a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. Based on the present refined shear deformation plate theory, the governing equations of equilibrium are derived from the principle of virtual displacements. Numerical illustrations concern buckling behavior of FG sandwiches plates with Metal-Ceramic composition. Parametric studies are performed for varying ceramic volume fraction, volume fraction profiles, Boundary condition, and length to thickness ratios. The accuracy of the present solutions is verified by comparing the obtained results with the existing solutions.