• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.119-132
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• 2020

In this study a new innovative three unknowns trigonometric shear deformation theory is proposed for the buckling and vibration responses of exponentially graded sandwich plates resting on elastic mediums under various boundary conditions. The key feature of this theoretical formulation is that, in addition to considering shear deformation effect, it has only three unknowns in the displacement field as in the case of the classical plate theory (CPT), contrary to five as in the first shear deformation theory (FSDT) and higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). Material characteristics of the sandwich plate faces are considered to vary within the thickness direction via an exponential law distribution as a function of the volume fractions of the constituents. Equations of motion are obtained by employing Hamilton's principle. Numerical results for buckling and free vibration analysis of exponentially graded sandwich plates under various boundary conditions are obtained and discussed. Verification studies confirmed that the present three -unknown shear deformation theory is comparable with higher-order shear deformation theories which contain a greater number of unknowns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.311-325
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• 2018

This article presents the bending analysis of FGM rectangular plates resting on non-uniform elastic foundations in thermal environment. Theoretical formulations are based on a recently developed refined shear deformation theory. The displacement field of the present theory is chosen based on nonlinear variations in the in-plane displacements through the thickness of the plate. The present theory 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 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 modeled as non-uniform 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 thermo-mechanical behavior of functionally graded plates. Numerical results show that the present theory can archive accuracy comparable to the existing higher order shear deformation theories that contain more number of unknowns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.125-137
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• 2018

In this work, the bending and free vibration analysis of multilayered plates and shells is presented by utilizing a new higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT). The proposed involves only four unknowns, which is even less than the first shear deformation theory (FSDT) and without requiring the shear correction coefficient. Unlike the conventional HSDTs, the present one presents a novel displacement field which incorporates undetermined integral variables. The equations of motion are derived by using the Hamilton's principle. These equations are then solved via Navier-type, closed form solutions. Bending and vibration results are found for cylindrical and spherical shells and plates for simply supported boundary conditions. Bending and vibration problems are treated as individual cases. Panels are subjected to sinusoidal, distributed and point loads. Results are presented for thick to thin as well as shallow and deep shells. The computed results are compared with the exact 3D elasticity theory and with several other conventional HSDTs. The proposed HSDT is found to be precise compared to other several existing ones for investigating the static and dynamic response of isotropic and multilayered composite shell and plate structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.127-140
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• 2016

In this paper, a new first shear deformation plate theory based on neutral surface position is developed for the static and the free vibration analysis of functionally graded plates (FGPs). Moreover, the number of unknowns of this theory is the least one comparing with the traditional first-order and the other higher order shear deformation theories. The neutral surface position for a functionally graded plate which its material properties vary in the thickness direction is determined. 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 shear deformation plate theory and the neutral surface concept, the governing equations are derived from the principle of Hamilton. There is no stretching-bending coupling effect in the neutral surface based formulation. Numerical illustrations concern flexural and dynamic behavior of FG plates with Metal-Ceramic composition. Parametric studies are performed for varying ceramic volume fraction, length to thickness ratios. The accuracy of the present solutions is verified by comparing the obtained results with the existing solutions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.47-66
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• 2021

This work addresses the free vibration analysis of Functionally Graded Porous (FGP) nanocomposite truncated conical shells with Graphene PLatelet (GPL) reinforcement. In this study, three different distributions for porosity and three different dispersions for graphene platelets have been considered in the direction of the shell thickness. The Halpin-Tsai equations are used to find the effective material properties of the graphene platelet reinforced materials. The equations of motion are derived based on the higher-order shear deformation theory and Sanders's theory. The Fourier Differential Quadrature (FDQ) technique is implemented to solve the governing equations of the problem and to obtain the natural frequencies of the truncated conical shell. The combination of FDQ with higher-order shear deformation theory allows a very accurate prediction of the natural frequencies. The precision and reliability of the proposed method are verified by the results of literature. Moreover, a wide parametric study concerning the effect of some influential parameters, such as the geometrical parameters, porosity distribution, circumferential wave numbers, GPLs dispersion as well as boundary restraint conditions on free vibration response of FGP-GPL truncated conical shell is also carried out and investigated in detail.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.633-643
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• 2023

In this study, the natural frequencies of Functional Graded Materials (FGM) plates are predicted using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). A model based on Third-order Shear Deformation Theory (TSDT) and FEM is used to train the ANN model. Different training methods are tested to simulate input and output dependency. As this is a parametric model, several architectures and optimization algorithms were tested. The proposed model allows us to minimize the CPU time to evaluate candidate material properties for FGM plate material selection and demonstrate their influence on dynamic behavior. Consequently, the time required for the FGM design process (candidate materials for material selection) and the geometric optimization of the FGM structure would remain reasonable. The ANN model can help industries to produce FGM plates with good mechanical properties of the selected materials. I addition, this model can be used to directly predict vibration behavior by testing a large number of FGM plates, representing all possible combinations of metals and ceramics in today's industry, without having to solve any eigenvalue problems.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.883-919
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• 2016

In this research, buckling analysis of an embedded laminated composite plate is investigated. The elastic medium is simulated with spring constant of Winkler medium and shear layer. With considering higher order shear deformation theory (Reddy), the total potential energy of structure is calculated. Using Principle of Virtual Work, the constitutive equations are obtained. The analytical solution is performed in order to obtain the buckling loads. A detailed parametric study is conducted to elucidate the influences of the layer numbers, orientation angle of layers, geometrical parameters, elastic medium and type of load on the buckling load of the system. Results depict that the highest buckling load is related to the structure with angle-ply orientation type and with increasing the angle up to 45 degrees, the buckling load increases.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.3
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• pp.325-337
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• 2019

In the present article, cross ply laminated composite plates are considered and a simple sinusoidal shear deformation model is tested for analyzing their flexural, stability and dynamic behaviors. The model contains only four unknown variables that are five in the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) or other higher order models. The in-plane kinematic utilizes undetermined integral terms to quantitatively express the shear deformation influence. In the proposed theory, the conditions of zero shear stress are respected at bottom and top faces of plates without considering the shear correction coefficient. Equations of motion according to the proposed formulation are deduced by employing the virtual work principle in its dynamic version. The analytical solution is determined via double trigonometric series proposed by Navier. The stresses, displacements, natural frequencies and critical buckling forces computed using present method are compared with other published data where a good agreement between results is demonstrated.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.265-275
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• 2019

In this work, the effect of size on the axial buckling behavior of single-layered graphene sheets embedded in elastic media is studied. We incorporate Eringen's nonlocal elasticity equations into three plate theories of first order shear deformation theory, higher order shear deformation theory, and classical plate theory. The surrounding elastic media are simulated using Pasternak and Winkler foundation models and their differences are evaluated. The results obtained from different nonlocal plate theories include the values of Winkler and Pasternak modulus parameters, mode numbers, nonlocal parameter, and side lengths of square SLGSs. We show here that axial buckling behavior strongly depends on modulus and nonlocal parameters, which have different values for different mode numbers and side lengths. In addition, we show that in different nonlocal plate theories, nonlocality is more influential in first order shear deformation theory, especially in certain range of nonlocal parameters.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.151-176
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• 2017

This paper deals with general equations of motion for free vibration analysis response of thick three-layer doubly curved sandwich panels (DCSP) under simply supported boundary conditions (BCs) using higher order shear deformation theory. In this model, the face sheets are orthotropic laminated composite that follow the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) based on Rissners-Mindlin (RM) kinematics field. The core is made of orthotropic material and its in-plane transverse displacements are modeled using the third order of the Taylor's series extension. It provides the potentiality for considering both compressible and incompressible cores. To find these equations and boundary conditions, Hamilton's principle is used. Also, the effect of trapezoidal shape factor for cross-section of curved panel element ($1{\pm}z/R$) is considered. The natural frequency parameters of DCSP are obtained using Galerkin Method. Convergence studies are performed with the appropriate formulas in general form for three-layer sandwich plate, cylindrical and spherical shells (both deep and shallow). The influences of core stiffness, ratio of core to face sheets thickness and radii of curvatures are investigated. Finally, for the first time, an optimum range for the core to face sheet stiffness ratio by considering the existence of in-plane stress which significantly affects the natural frequencies of DCSP are presented.