Effects of thickness stretching in functionally graded plates and shells

1The present work evaluates the effect of thickness stretching in plate/shell structures made by materials which are functionally graded (FGM) in the thickness directions. That is done by removing or retaining the transverse normal strain in the kinematics assumptions of various refined plate/shell theories. Variable plate/shell models are implemented according to Carrera's Unified Formulation. Plate/shell theories with constant transverse displacement are compared with the corresponding linear to fourth order of expansion in the thickness direction ones. Single-layered and multilayered FGM structures have been analyzed. A large numerical investigation, encompassing various plate/shell geometries as well as various grading rates for FGMs, has been conducted. It is mainly concluded that a refinements of classical theories that include additional in-plane variables could results meaningless unless transverse normal strain effects are taken into account

Isogeometric analysis for functionally graded microplates based on modified couple stress theory

Analysis of static bending, free vibration and buckling behaviours of functionally graded microplates is investigated in this study. The main idea is to use the isogeometric analysis in associated with novel four-variable refined plate theory and quasi-3D theory. More importantly, the modified couple stress theory with only one material length scale parameter is employed to effectively capture the size-dependent effects within the microplates. Meanwhile, the quasi-3D theory which is constructed from a novel seventh-order shear deformation refined plate theory with four unknowns is able to consider both shear deformations and thickness stretching effect without requiring shear correction factors. The NURBS-based isogeometric analysis is integrated to exactly describe the geometry and approximately calculate the unknown fields with higher-order derivative and continuity requirements. The convergence and verification show the validity and efficiency of this proposed computational approach in comparison with those existing in the literature. It is further applied to study the static bending, free vibration and buckling responses of rectangular and circular functionally graded microplates with various types of boundary conditions. A number of investigations are also conducted to illustrate the effects of the material length scale, material index, and length-to-thickness ratios on the responses of the microplates.Comment: 57 pages, 14 figures, 18 table

Microstructure-based modeling of elastic functionally graded materials: One dimensional case

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are two-phase composites with continuously changing microstructure adapted to performance requirements. Traditionally, the overall behavior of FGMs has been determined using local averaging techniques or a given smooth variation of material properties. Although these models are computationally efficient, their validity and accuracy remain questionable, since a link with the underlying microstructure (including its randomness) is not clear. In this paper, we propose a modeling strategy for the linear elastic analysis of FGMs systematically based on a realistic microstructural model. The overall response of FGMs is addressed in the framework of stochastic Hashin-Shtrikman variational principles. To allow for the analysis of finite bodies, recently introduced discretization schemes based on the Finite Element Method and the Boundary Element Method are employed to obtain statistics of local fields. Representative numerical examples are presented to compare the performance and accuracy of both schemes. To gain insight into similarities and differences between these methods and to minimize technicalities, the analysis is performed in the one-dimensional setting.Comment: 33 pages, 14 figure

Free vibrations and static analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates with three-dimensional finite elements

A three-dimensional modelling of free vibrations and static response of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates is presented. Natural frequencies and associated mode shapes as well as displacements and stresses are determined by using the finite element method within the ABAQUSTM code. The three-dimensional (3-D) brick graded finite element is programmed and incorporated into the code via the user-defined material subroutine UMAT. The results of modal and static analyses are demonstrated for square metal-ceramic functionally graded simply supported plates with a power-law through-the-thickness variation of the volume fraction of the ceramic constituent. The through-the-thickness distribution of effective material properties at a point are defined based on the Mori-Tanaka scheme. First, exact values of displacements, stresses and natural frequencies available for FGM sandwich plates in the literature are used to verify the performance and estimate the accuracy of the developed 3-D graded finite element. Then, parametric studies are carried out for the frequency analysis by varying the volume fraction profile and value of the ceramic volume fraction

Post-buckling of functionally graded microplates under mechanical and thermal loads using isogeometric analysis

The present study uses the isogeometric analysis (IGA) to investigate the post-buckling behavior of functionally graded (FG) microplates subjected to mechanical and thermal loads. The modified a strain gradient theory with three length scale parameters is used to capture the size effect. The Reddy third-order shear deformation plate theory with the von Kámán nonlinearity (i.e., small strains and moderate rotations) is employed to describe the kinematics of the microplates. Material variations in the thickness direction of the plate are described using a rule of mixtures. In addition, material properties are assumed to be either temperature-dependent or temperature-independent. The governing equations are derived using the principle of virtual work, which are then discretized using the IGA approach, whereby a C2-continuity requirement is fulfilled naturally and efficiently. To trace the post-buckling paths, Newton’s iterative technique is utilized. Various parametric studies are conducted to examine the influences of material variations, size effects, thickness ratios, and boundary conditions on the post-buckling behavior of microplates

Free vibration analysis of pre-stressed FGM Timoshenko beams under large transverse deflection by a variational method

AbstractA theoretical study on free vibration behavior of pre-stressed functionally graded material (FGM) beam is carried out. Power law variation of volume fraction along the thickness direction is considered. Geometric non-linearity is incorporated through von Kármán non-linear strain–displacement relationship. The governing equation for the static problem is obtained using minimum potential energy principle. The dynamic problem for the pre-stressed beam is formulated as an eigenvalue problem using Hamilton's principle. Three classical boundary conditions with immovable ends are considered for the present work, namely clamped–clamped, simply supported–simply supported and clamped–simply supported. Four different FGM beams, namely Stainless Steel–Silicon Nitride, Stainless Steel–Zirconia, Stainless Steel–Alumina and Titanium alloy–Zirconia, are considered for generation of results. Numerical results for non-dimensional frequency parameters of undeformed beam are presented. The results are presented in non-dimensional pressure-displacement plane for the static problem and in non-dimensional frequency-displacement plane for the dynamic problem. Comparative frequency-displacement plots are presented for different FGMs and also for different volume fraction indices

A size-dependent functionally graded sinusoidal plate model based on a modified couple stress theory

A size-dependent model for bending and free vibration of functionally graded plate is developed based on the modified couple stress theory and sinusoidal shear deformation theory. In the former theory, the small scale effect is taken into consideration, while the effect of shear deformation is accounted for in the latter theory. The equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived from Hamilton’s principle. Analytical solutions for the bending and vibration problems of simply supported plates are obtained. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the influences of small scale on the responses of functionally graded microplates. The results indicate that the inclusion of small scale effects results in an increase in plate stiffness, and consequently, leads to a reduction of deflection and an increase in frequency. Such small scale effects are significant when the plate thickness is small, but become negligible with increasing plate thickness