Thermally induced buckling of thin annular FGM plates

Abstract

This article discusses the instability of thin annular FG plates subjected to transversely distributed temperature loading. Based on the classical thin plate theory, equilibrium equations of an annular FG plate are obtained. Plate is assumed to be graded in the thickness direction whose material properties vary smoothly according to the power law form. Existence of bifurcation buckling for various boundary conditions are examined and stability equations are obtained by means of the adjacent equilibrium criterion. An analytical solution is presented to calculate the thermal buckling load by finding the exact eigenvalues of the stability equation. Three types of thermal loading, namely uniform temperature rise, transversely linear temperature and heat conduction across the thickness are studied. The effects of thickness, power law index and thermal loading type on the critical buckling temperature of FG plates are presented comprehensively. It is found that, while the temperature loading through the plate is symmetric, first buckled configuration of a fully clamped FGM plate is always asymmetric.