• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제72권6호
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• pp.763-774
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• 2019

The main aim of this paper is enhancing design of traditional laminated composite plates subjected to static loads. In this regard, this paper suggests embedding a lightweight porous layer in the middle of laminated composite as the core layer of the resulted sandwich plate. The static responses of the suggested structures with uniform, symmetric and non-symmetric porosity distributions are compared to optimize their design. Using the first order shear deformation theories, the static governing equations of the suggested laminated composite plates with a porous layer (LCPPL) rested on two-parameter foundation are obtained. A finite element method is also utilized to solve the governing equations of LCPPLs. Effects of laminated composite and porosity characteristics as well as geometry dimension, edges' boundary conditions and foundation coefficients on the static deflection and stress distribution of the suggested composite plates have been investigated. The results reveal that the use of core between the layers of laminated composites leads to a sharp reduction in the static deflections of LCPPLs. Furthermore, in compare with perfect cores, the use of porous core between the layers of laminated composite plates can offer a considerable reduction in structural weight without a significant difference in their static responses.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제18권6호
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• pp.1493-1515
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• 2015

A new refined hyperbolic shear deformation theory (RHSDT), which involves only four unknown functions as against five in case of other shear deformation theories, is presented for the thermoelastic bending analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates. Unlike any other theory, the number of unknown functions involved is only four, as against five in case of other shear deformation theories. The theory presented is variationally consistent, does not require shear correction factor, and gives rise to transverse shear stress variation such that the transverse shear stresses vary parabolically across the thickness satisfying shear stress free surface conditions. The sandwich plate faces are assumed to have isotropic, two-constituent material distribution through the thickness, and the modulus of elasticity, Poisson's ratio of the faces, and thermal expansion coefficients are assumed to vary according to a power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic ceramic material. Several kinds of sandwich plates are used taking into account the symmetry of the plate and the thickness of each layer. The influences played by the transverse shear deformation, thermal load, plate aspect ratio and volume fraction distribution are studied. Numerical results for deflections and stresses of functionally graded metal-ceramic plates are investigated. It can be concluded that the proposed theory is accurate and simple in solving the thermoelastic bending behavior of functionally graded plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제37권6호
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• pp.711-731
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• 2020

This paper deals with free vibration of FG sandwich annular sector plates on Pasternak elastic foundation with different boundary conditions, based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity. The plates with simply supported radial edges and arbitrary boundary conditions on their circular edges are considered. The influence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) waviness, aspect ratio, internal pores and graphene platelets (GPLs) on the vibrational behavior of functionally graded nanocomposite sandwich plates is investigated in this research work. The distributions of CNTs are considered functionally graded (FG) or uniform along the thickness of upper and bottom layers of the sandwich sectorial plates 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. The core of structure is porous and the internal pores and graphene platelets (GPLs) are distributed in the matrix of core either uniformly or non-uniformly according to three different patterns. The elastic properties of the nanocomposite are obtained by employing Halpin-Tsai micromechanics model. A semi-analytic approach composed of 2D-Generalized Differential Quadrature Method (2D-GDQM) and series solution is adopted to solve the equations of motion. The fast rate of convergence and accuracy of the method are investigated through the different solved examples. Some new results for the natural frequencies of the plate are prepared, which include the effects of elastic coefficients of foundation, boundary conditions, material and geometrical parameters. The new results can be used as benchmark solutions for future researches.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.399-423
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• 2013

In the present study, the thermal buckling behavior of functionally graded sandwich plates is studied using a new hyperbolic displacement model. Unlike any other theory, the theory is variationally consistent and gives four governing equations. Number of unknown functions involved in displacement field is only four, as against five in case of other shear deformation theories. This present model takes into account the parabolic distribution of transverse shear stresses and satisfies the condition of zero shear stresses on the top and bottom surfaces without using shear correction factor. Material properties and thermal expansion coefficient of the sandwich plate faces are assumed 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 assumed as uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises across the thickness direction. The results reveal that the volume fraction index, loading type and functionally graded layers thickness have significant influence on the thermal buckling of functionally graded sandwich plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제44권1호
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• pp.15-34
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• 2012

In the present paper, an improved high-order theory is used for bending analysis of soft-core sandwich plates. Third-order plate assumptions are used for face sheets and quadratic and cubic functions are assumed for transverse and in-plane displacements of the orthotropic soft core. Continuity conditions for transverse shear stresses at the interfaces as well as the conditions of zero transverse shear stresses on the upper and lower surfaces of the plate are satisfied. Also, transverse flexibility and transverse normal strain and stress of the orthotropic core are considered. The equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived by principle of minimum potential energy. Analytical solution for bending analysis of simply supported sandwich plates under various transverse loads are presented using Navier's solution. Comparison of the present results with those of the three-dimensional theory of elasticity and some plate theories in the literature confirms the accuracy of the proposed theory.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제22권5호
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• pp.975-999
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• 2016

This work investigates a thermomechanical bending analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates by proposing a novel quasi-3D type higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT). The mathematical model introduces only 5 variables as the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT). Unlike the conventional HSDT, the present one presents a novel displacement field which includes undetermined integral variables. The mechanical properties of functionally graded layers of the plate are supposed to change in the thickness direction according to a power law distribution. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic ceramic material. The governing equations for the thermomechanical bending investigation are obtained through the principle of virtual work and solved via Navier-type method. Interesting results are determined and compared with quasi-3D and 2D HSDTs. The influences of functionally graded material (FGM) layer thickness, power law index, layer thickness ratio, thickness ratio and aspect ratio on the deflections and stresses of functionally graded sandwich plates are discussed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.127-139
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• 2017

In this paper, an exact analytical solution for simply supported sandwich plate which considers the permeation effect of adhesives is presented. The permeation layer is described as functionally graded material (FGM), the elastic modulus of which is assumed to be graded along the thickness following the exponential law. Based on the exact three-dimensional (3-D) elasticity theory, the solution of stresses and displacements for each layer is derived. By means of the recursive matrix method, the solution can be efficiently obtained for plates with many layers. The present solution obtained can be used as a benchmark to access other simplified solutions. The comparison study indicates that the finite element (FE) solution is close to the present one when the FGM layer in the FE model is divided into a series of homogeneous layers. However, the present method is more efficient than the FE method, with which the mesh division and computation are time-consuming. Moreover, the solution based on Kirchhoff-Love plate theory is greatly different from the present solution for thick plates. The influence of the thickness of the permeation layer on the stress and displacement fields of the sandwich plate is discussed in detail. It is indicated that the permeation layer can effectively relieve the discontinuity stress at the interface.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제23권5호
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• pp.361-376
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• 2019

In this research, bending analysis of a micro sandwich skew plate with isotropic core and piezoelectric composite face sheets reinforced by carbon nanotube on the elastic foundations are studied. The classical plate theory (CPT) are used to model micro sandwich skew plate and to apply size dependent effects based on modified strain gradient theory. Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka approach is considered for the effective mechanical properties of the nanocomposite face sheets. The governing equations of equilibrium are derived using minimum principle of total potential energy and then solved by extended Kantorovich method (EKM). The effects of width to thickness ratio and length to width of the sandwich plate, core-to-face sheet thickness ratio, the material length scale parameters, volume fraction of CNT, the angle of skew plate, different boundary conditions and types of cores on the deflection of micro sandwich skew plate are investigated. One of the most important results is the reduction of the deflection by increasing the angle of the micro sandwich skew plate and decreasing the deflection by decreasing the thickness of the structural core. The results of this research can be used in modern construction in the form of reinforced slabs or stiffened plates and also used in construction of bridges, the wing of airplane.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.721-733
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• 2020

The present study investigates the employing of piezoelectric patches in active control of a sandwich plate. Indeed, the active control and optimal patch distribution on this structure are presented together. A sandwich plate with honeycomb core and composite reinforced by carbon nanotubes in facesheet layers is considered so that the optimum position of actuator/sensor patches pair is guaranteed to suppress the vibration of sandwich structures. The sandwich panel consists of a search space which is a square of 200 × 200 mm with a numerous number of candidates for the optimum position. Also, different dimension of square and rectangular plates to obtain the optimal placement of piezoelectric actuator/senor patches pair is considered. Based on genetic algorithm and LQR, the optimum position of patches and fitness function is determined, respectively. The present study reveals that the efficiency and performance of LQR control is affected by the optimal placement of the actuator/sensor patches pair to a large extent. It is also shown that an intelligent selection of the parent, repeated genes filtering, and 80% crossover and 20% mutation would increase the convergence of the algorithm. It is noted that a fitness function is achieved by collection actuator/sensor patches pair cost functions in the same position (controllability). It is worth mentioning that the study of the optimal location of actuator/sensor patches pair is carried out for different boundary conditions of a sandwich plate such as simply supported and clamped boundary conditions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제43권5호
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• pp.581-601
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• 2022

The main objective of this research work is to investigate the free vibration behavior of annular sandwich plates resting on the Kerr foundation at thermal conditions. This sandwich configuration is composed of two FGM face sheets as coating layer and a porous GPLRC (GPL reinforced composite) core. It is supposed that the GPL nanofillers and the porosity coefficient vary continuously along the core thickness direction. To model closed-cell FG porous material reinforced with GPLs, Halpin-Tsai micromechanical modeling in conjunction with Gaussian-Random field scheme is used, while the Poisson's ratio and density are computed by the rule of mixtures. Besides, the material properties of two FGM face sheets change continuously through the thickness according to the power-law distribution. To capture fundamental frequencies of the annular sandwich plate resting on the Kerr foundation in a thermal environment, the analysis procedure is with the aid of Reddy's shear-deformation plate theory based high-order shear deformation plate theory (HSDT) to derive and solve the equations of motion and boundary conditions. The governing equations together with related boundary conditions are discretized using the generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method in the spatial domain. Numerical results are compared with those published in the literature to examine the accuracy and validity of the present approach. A parametric solution for temperature variation across the thickness of the sandwich plate is employed taking into account the thermal conductivity, the inhomogeneity parameter, and the sandwich schemes. The numerical results indicate the influence of volume fraction index, GPLs volume fraction, porosity coefficient, three independent coefficients of Kerr elastic foundation, and temperature difference on the free vibration behavior of annular sandwich plate. This study provides essential information to engineers seeking innovative ways to promote composite structures in a practical way.