• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.85-106
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• 2015

Postbuckling of thick plates made of functionally graded material (FGM) subjected to in-plane compressive, thermal and thermomechanical loads is investigated in this work. It is assumed that the plate is in contact with a Pasternak-type elastic foundation during deformation. Thermomechanical non-homogeneous properties are considered to be temperature independent, and graded smoothly by the distribution of power law across the thickness in the thickness in terms of the volume fractions of constituents. By employing the higher order shear deformation plate theory together the non-linear von-Karman strain-displacement relations, the equilibrium and compatibility equations of imperfect FGM plates are derived. The Galerkin technique is used to determine the buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths for simply supported plates. Numerical examples are presented to show the influences of power law index, foundation stiffness and imperfection on the buckling and postbuckling loading capacity of the plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.85-104
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• 2013

The present work deals with the thermomechanical bending response of functionally graded plates resting on Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundations. Theoretical formulations are based on a recently developed refined trigonometric shear deformation theory (RTSDT). The theory accounts for trigonometric distribution of transverse shear stress, and satisfies the free transverse shear stress conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factor. Unlike the conventional trigonometric shear deformation theory, the present refined trigonometric shear deformation theory contains only four unknowns as against five in case of other shear deformation theories. The material properties of the functionally graded plates are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness, according to a simple power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. The elastic foundation is modelled as two-parameter Pasternak foundation. The results of the shear deformation theories are compared together. Numerical examples cover the effects of the gradient index, plate aspect ratio, side-to-thickness ratio and elastic foundation parameters on the thermomechanical behavior of functionally graded plates. It can be concluded that the proposed theory is accurate and efficient in predicting the thermomechanical bending response of functionally graded plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.663-686
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• 2014

This paper deals with free vibration analysis of bidirectional functionally graded annular plates resting on a two-parameter elastic foundation. The formulations are based on the three-dimensional elasticity theory. This study presents a novel 2-D six-parameter power-law distribution for ceramic volume fraction of 2-D functionally graded materials that gives designers a powerful tool for flexible designing of structures under multi-functional requirements. Various material profiles along the thickness and in the in-plane directions are illustrated by using the 2-D power-law distribution. The effective material properties at a point are determined in terms of the local volume fractions and the material properties by the Mori-Tanaka scheme. The 2-D differential quadrature method as an efficient and accurate numerical tool is used to discretize the governing equations and to implement the boundary conditions. The fast rate of convergence of the method is shown and the results are compared against existing results in literature. Some new results for natural frequencies of the plates are prepared, which include the effects of elastic coefficients of foundation, boundary conditions, material and geometrical parameters. The interesting results indicate that a graded ceramic volume fraction in two directions has a higher capability to reduce the natural frequency than conventional 1-D functionally graded materials.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.443-465
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• 2015

In this paper, an efficient and simple trigonometric shear deformation theory is presented for thermal buckling analysis of functionally graded plates. It is assumed that the plate is in contact with elastic foundation during deformation. The theory accounts for sinusoidal distribution of transverse shear stress, and satisfies the free transverse shear stress conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factor. Unlike the conventional trigonometric shear deformation theory, the proposed sinusoidal shear deformation theory contains only four unknowns. It is assumed that the mechanical and thermal non-homogeneous properties of functionally graded plate vary smoothly by distribution of power law across the plate thickness. Using the non-linear strain-displacement relations, the equilibrium and stability equations of plates made of functionally graded materials are derived. The boundary conditions for the plate are assumed to be simply supported on all edges. The elastic foundation is modelled by two-parameters Pasternak model, which is obtained by adding a shear layer to the Winkler model. The effects of thermal loading types and variations of power of functionally graded material, aspect ratio, and thickness ratio on the critical buckling temperature of functionally graded plates are investigated and discussed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.717-726
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• 2017

In this paper, a new simple shear deformation theory for bending analysis of functionally graded plates is developed. The present theory involves only three unknown and three governing equation as in the classical plate theory, but it is capable of accurately capturing shear deformation effects, instead of five as in the well-known first shear deformation theory and higher-order shear deformation theory. A shear correction factor is, therefore, not required. The material properties of the functionally graded plates are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness, according to a simple power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. Equations of motion are obtained by utilizing the principle of virtual displacements and solved via Navier's procedure. The elastic foundation is modeled as two parameter elastic foundation. The results are verified with the known results in the literature. The influences played by transversal shear deformation, plate aspect ratio, side-to-thickness ratio, elastic foundation, and volume fraction distributions are studied. Verification studies show that the proposed theory is not only accurate and simple in solving the bending behaviour of functionally graded plates, but also comparable with the other higher-order shear deformation theories which contain more number of unknowns.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.9-34
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• 2017

In this work, an efficient and simple quasi-3D hyperbolic shear deformation theory is developed for bending and vibration analyses of functionally graded (FG) plates resting on two-parameter elastic foundation. The significant feature of this theory is that, in addition to including the thickness stretching effect, it deals with only 5 unknowns as the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The foundation is described by the Pasternak (two-parameter) model. The material 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. Equations of motion for thick FG plates are obtained within the Hamilton's principle. Analytical solutions for the bending and free vibration analysis are obtained for simply supported plates. The numerical results are given in detail and compared with the existing works such as 3-dimensional solutions and those predicted by other plate theories. It can be concluded that the present theory is not only accurate but also simple in predicting the bending and free vibration responses of functionally graded plates resting on elastic foundation.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.389-409
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• 2022

During the manufacture of FGM plates, defects such as porosities can appear. Those can change the entire behavior of these plates. This paper aims to investigate the free vibration characteristics of porous functionally graded (FG) plates resting on elastic foundations. 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. Different types of porosity distribution rates are considered. To examine the accuracy of the present formulation, several comparison studies are investigated. Effects of variation of porosity distribution rate, foundation parameter, power-law index and thickness ratio on the fundamental frequency of plates have been investigated.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.171-181
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• 2022

Functionally graded material (FGM) has been spotlighted as an advanced composite material due to its excellent thermo-mechanical performance. And the buckling of FGM resting on elastic foundations has been a challenging subject because its behavior is directly connected to the structural safety. In this context, this paper is concerned with a numerical buckling analysis of metal-ceramic FG plates resting on a two-parameter (Pasternak-type) elastic foundation. The buckling problem is formulated based on the neutral surface and the (1,1,0) hierarchical model, and it is numerically approximated by 2-D natural element method (NEM) which provides a high accuracy even for coarse grid. The derived eigenvalue equations are solved by employing Lanczos and Jacobi algorithms. The numerical results are compared with the reference solutions through the benchmark test, from which the reliability of present numerical method has been verified. Using the developed numerical method, the critical buckling loads of metal-ceramic FG plates are parametrically investigated with respect to the major design parameters.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.447-462
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• 2019

This present paper concerned with the analytic modelling for vibration of the functionally graded (FG) plates resting on non-variable and variable two parameter elastic foundation, based on two-dimensional elasticity using higher shear deformation theory. Our present theory has four unknown, which mean that have less than other higher order and lower theory, and we denote do not require the factor of correction like the first shear deformation theory. The indeterminate integral are introduced in the fields of displacement, it is allowed to reduce the number from five unknown to only four variables. The elastic foundations are assumed a classical model of Winkler-Pasternak with uniform distribution stiffness of the Winkler coefficient (kw), or it is with variables distribution coefficient (kw). The variable's stiffness of elastic foundation is supposed linear, parabolic and trigonometry along the length of functionally plate. The properties of the FG plates vary according to the thickness, following a simple distribution of the power law in terms of volume fractions of the constituents of the material. The equations of motions for natural frequency of the functionally graded plates resting on variables elastic foundation are derived using Hamilton principal. The government equations are resolved, with respect boundary condition for simply supported FG plate, employing Navier series solution. The extensive validation with other works found in the literature and our results are present in this work to demonstrate the efficient and accuracy of this analytic model to predict free vibration of FG plates, with and without the effect of variables elastic foundations.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.773-796
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• 2014

This paper deals with free vibration analysis of continuous grading fiber reinforced (CGFR) and bi-directional FG annular sector plates on two-parameter elastic foundations under various 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. A semi-analytical approach composed of differential quadrature method (DQM) and series solution is adopted to solve the equations of motion. 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. Results indicate that the non-dimensional natural frequency parameter of a functionally graded fiber volume fraction is larger than that of a discrete laminated and close to that of a 2-layer. It results that the CGFR plate attains natural frequency higher than those of traditional discretely laminated composite ones and this can be a benefit when higher stiffness of the plate is the goal and that is due to the reduction in spatial mismatch of material properties. Moreover, it is shown that a graded ceramic volume fraction in two directions has a higher capability to reduce the natural frequency than conventional one-dimensional functionally graded material. The multidirectional graded material can likely be designed according to the actual requirement and it is a potential alternative to the unidirectional functionally graded material. The new results can be used as benchmark solutions for future researches.