A refined sinusoidal model for functionally graded plates subjected to thermomechanical loading

Abstract

A refined sinusoidal model considering transverse normal strain has been developed for thermoelastic analysis of functionally graded material plate. Although transverse normal strain has been considered, the additional displacement parameters are not increased as transverse normal strain only includes the thermal expansion coefficient and thermal loading. Moreover, the merit of the previous sinusoidal model satisfying tangential stress-free boundary conditions on the surfaces can be maintained. It is important that the effects of transverse normal thermal deformation are incorporated in the in-plane displacement field, which can actively influence the accuracy of in-plane stresses. To assess the performance of the proposed model, the thermoelastic behaviors of functionally graded material plates with various configurations have been analyzed. Without increase of displacement variables, accuracy of the proposed model can be significantly improved by comparing to the previous sinusoidal model. Agreement between the present results and quasi-dimensional solutions are very good, and the proposed model only includes the five displacement variables which can illustrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the present model. In addition, new results using several models considered in this paper have been presented, which can serve as a reference for future investigations.