Numerical investigation on post-buckling behavior of FGM sandwich plates subjected to in-plane mechanical compression

Abstract

This study intends to numerically analyze post-buckling behavior of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates under mechanical edge compression. A simple yet accurate meshless approximation based on the radial point interpolation method (RPIM) and the higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) is presented and used to predict the post-buckling responses. The HSDT constructs a von Kármán type nonlinear equation which accounts for both the large deformation and the initial geometric imperfection for imperfect FGM sandwich plate. The field variables are approximated by introducing the radial basis function in a compactly supported form through which the shape functions are constructed without any fitting parameters. A solution procedure which utilizes the modified Newton-Raphson iterative scheme is designed to solve the discretized system equations needed to obtain the post-buckling path. Performance accuracy of the mesh-free approximation is confirmed by the comparative studies, followed by the detailed parametric investigations to elucidate the post-buckling characteristics of FGM sandwich plates subjected to in-plane mechanical compression. Results illustrate that the proposed mesh-free method can be used as a simple and accurate numerical tool for predicting the post-buckling responses of FGM sandwich plates, and the initial geometric imperfection and loading type have significant effects on the post-buckling behavior.