Analytical study on bending behaviour of plates made of functionally graded materials using higher-order shear

Abstract

Functionally Graded Materials (FGM) are the alternate replacement of laminated composites and metallic substances in structural members from daily use to aerospace applications due to their superior characteristics like ability to with stand large temperature gradients, competence to endure to heavy forces and superior sturdy properties, lesser residual and thermal stresses, high capacity to resist surface wear and tear, and an overall increment in strength to weight ratio. As this advanced class of materials are being used as the structural components their ability to with stand various loads considering different boundary conditions under various analytical approaches is very essential even before put into use. The key objective of the current study is to apply higher–order displacement model to determine bending behaviour of plate made of functionally graded material with distinct geometrical constraints, forces and degree of orthotropy under simply supported boundary conditions. An analytical investigation on the behaviour stresses developed in plates made of functionally graded material by applying higher order shear displacement model approach is carried-out by considering the effective material properties according to power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents and the equations obtained for simply supported beam made functionally graded materials from closed form using Navier’s empirical equations. A Computer code has been developed using MATHEMATICA 7.0 Software for displacement model to predict deflections and stresses. The accurateness of the current higher-order shear deformation theory has been tested for static bending of functionally graded material plates. The findings are reported in non-dimensional form for various thickness ratios, aspect ratios, degrees of orthotropy, volume fraction index values, and loading circumstances for static bending issues involving mechanical loading of functionally graded material plates. All the solutions derived by the current higher order shear deformation theory agree well with the other plate theory solutions that are documented in the literature.