• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.49-63
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• 2017

This paper presents an original hyperbolic (first present model) and parabolic (second present model) shear and normal deformation theory for the bending analysis to account for the effect of thickness stretching in functionally graded sandwich plates. Indeed, the number of unknown functions involved in these presents theories is only five, as opposed to six or even greater numbers in the case of other shear and normal deformation theories. The present theory accounts for both shear deformation and thickness stretching effects by a hyperbolic variation of ail displacements across the thickness and satisfies the stress-free boundary conditions on the upper and lower surfaces of the plate without requiring any shear correction factor. It is evident from the present analyses; the thickness stretching effect is more pronounced for thick plates and it needs to be taken into consideration in more physically realistic simulations. The numerical results are compared with 3D exact solution, quasi-3-dimensional solutions and with other higher-order shear deformation theories, and the superiority of the present theory can be noticed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.3
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• pp.219-232
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• 2018

This paper deals with the static bending of various types of FGM sandwich plates resting on two-parameter elastic foundations in hygrothermal environment. The elastic foundation is modeled as Pasternak's type, which can be either isotropic or orthotropic and as a special case, it converges to Winkler's foundation if the shear layer is neglected. The present FGM sandwich plate is assumed to be made of a fully ceramic core layer sandwiched by metal/ceramic FGM coats. The governing equations are derived from principle of virtual displacements based on a shear and normal deformations plate theory. The present theory takes into account both shear and normal strains effects, thus it predicts results more accurate than the shear deformation plate theories. The results obtained by the shear and normal deformation theory are compared with those available in the literature and also with those obtained by other shear deformation theories. It is concluded that the present results are slightly deviated from other results because the normal deformation effect is taken into account. Numerical results are presented to show the effects of the different parameters, such as side-to-thickness ratio, foundation parameters, aspect ratio, temperature, moisture, power law index and core thickness on the stresses and displacements of the FG sandwich plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.867-891
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• 2014

An equivalent single layer trigonometric shear deformation theory taking into account transverse shear deformation effect as well as transverse normal strain effect is presented for static flexure of cross-ply laminated composite and sandwich plates. The inplane displacement field uses sinusoidal function in terms of thickness coordinate to include the transverse shear deformation effect. The cosine function in thickness coordinate is used in transverse displacement to include the effect of transverse normal strain. The kinematics of the present theory is much richer than those of the other higher order shear deformation theories, because if the trigonometric term (involving thickness coordinate z) is expanded in power series, the kinematics of higher order theories (which are usually obtained by power series in thickness coordinate z) are implicitly taken into account to good deal of extent. Governing equations and boundary conditions of the theory are obtained using the principle of virtual work. The closed-form solutions of simply supported cross-ply laminated composite and sandwich plates have been obtained. The results of present theory are compared with those of the classical plate theory (CPT), first order shear deformation theory (FSDT), higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) of Reddy and exact three dimensional elasticity theory wherever applicable. The results predicted by present theory are in good agreement with those of higher order shear deformation theory and the elasticity theory.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.313-335
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• 2019

The objective of the present paper is to investigate the bending and free vibration behavior of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich rectangular plates using an efficient and simple higher order shear deformation theory. Unlike other theories, there are only four unknown functions involved, as compared to five in other shear deformation theories. The most interesting feature of this theory is that it does not require the shear correction factor. Two common types of FGM sandwich plates are considered, namely, the sandwich with the FGM facesheet and the homogeneous core and the sandwich with the homogeneous facesheet and the FGM core. The equation of motion for the FGM sandwich plates is obtained based on Hamilton's principle. The closed form solutions are obtained by using the Navier technique. A static and free vibration frequency is given for different material properties. The accuracy of the present solutions is verified by comparing the obtained results with the existing solutions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.397-422
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• 2016

In the present work, a simple first-order shear deformation theory is developed and validated for a variety of numerical examples of the thermal buckling response of functionally graded sandwich plates with various boundary conditions. Contrary to the conventional first-order shear deformation theory, the present first-order shear deformation theory involves only four unknowns and has strong similarities with the classical plate theory in many aspects such as governing equations of motion, and stress resultant expressions. Material properties and thermal expansion coefficient of the sandwich plate faces are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic material. The thermal loads are considered as uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises within the thickness direction. The results reveal that the volume fraction index, loading type and functionally graded layers thickness have significant influence on the thermal buckling of functionally graded sandwich plates. Moreover, numerical results prove that the present simple first-order shear deformation theory can achieve the same accuracy of the existing conventional first-order shear deformation theory which has more number of unknowns.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.103-115
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• 2018

In this work, a simple but accurate hyperbolic plate theory for the free vibration analysis of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates is developed. The significant feature of this formulation is that, in addition to including the shear deformation effect, it deals with only 3 unknowns as the classical plate theory (CPT), instead of 5 as in the well-known first shear deformation theory (FSDT) and higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). A shear correction factor is, therefore, not required. Two common types of FGM sandwich plates are considered, namely, the sandwich with the FGM face sheet and the homogeneous core and the sandwich with the homogeneous face sheet and the FGM core. The equation of motion for the FGM sandwich plates is obtained based on Hamilton's principle. The closed form solutions are obtained by using the Navier technique. The fundamental frequencies are found by solving the eigenvalue problems. Numerical results of the present theory are compared with the CPT, FSDT, order shear deformation theories (HSDTs), and 3D solutions. Verification studies show that the proposed theory is not only accurate and simple in solving the free vibration behaviour of FGM sandwich plates, but also comparable with the higher-order shear deformation theories which contain more number of unknowns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.569-578
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• 2017

In this research work, a simple and accurate hyperbolic plate theory for the buckling analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates is presented. The main interest of this theory is that, in addition to incorporating the thickness stretching effect (${\varepsilon}_z{\not=}0$), the displacement field is composed only of 5 unknowns as the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT), instead of 6 like in the well-known "higher order shear and normal deformation theories". Thus, the number of unknowns and governing equations for the present theory is reduced, significantly facilitating engineering analysis. Governing equations are obtained by employing the principle of minimum total potential energy. Comparison studies are performed to verify the validity of present results. A numerical investigation has been conducted considering and neglecting the thickness stretching effects on the buckling of sandwich plates with functionally graded skins. It can be concluded that the present theory is not only accurate but also simple in predicting the buckling response of sandwich plates with functionally graded skins.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.5
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• pp.653-673
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• 2019

This work investigates a novel quasi-3D hyperbolic shear deformation theory is presented to discuss the buckling of new type of sandwich plates. This theory accounts for both shear deformation and thickness stretching effects by a hyperbolic variation of all displacements through the thickness. The enhancement of this formulation is due to the use of only five unknowns by including undetermined integral terms, contrary to other theories where we find six or more unknowns. It does not require shear correction factors and transverse shear stresses vary parabolically across the thickness. A new type of FGM sandwich plates, namely, both FGM face sheets and FGM hard core are considered. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived using the principle of virtual displacements. Analytical solutions are obtained for a simply supported plate. The accuracy of the present theory is verified by comparing the obtained results with quasi-3D solutions and those predicted by higher-order shear deformation theories. The comparison studies show that the obtained results are not only more accurate than those obtained by higher-order shear deformation theories, but also comparable with those predicted by quasi-3D theories with a greater number of unknowns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1493-1515
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• 2015

A new refined hyperbolic shear deformation theory (RHSDT), which involves only four unknown functions as against five in case of other shear deformation theories, is presented for the thermoelastic bending analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates. Unlike any other theory, the number of unknown functions involved is only four, as against five in case of other shear deformation theories. The theory presented is variationally consistent, does not require shear correction factor, and gives rise to transverse shear stress variation such that the transverse shear stresses vary parabolically across the thickness satisfying shear stress free surface conditions. The sandwich plate faces are assumed to have isotropic, two-constituent material distribution through the thickness, and the modulus of elasticity, Poisson's ratio of the faces, and thermal expansion coefficients are assumed to vary according to a power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic ceramic material. Several kinds of sandwich plates are used taking into account the symmetry of the plate and the thickness of each layer. The influences played by the transverse shear deformation, thermal load, plate aspect ratio and volume fraction distribution are studied. Numerical results for deflections and stresses of functionally graded metal-ceramic plates are investigated. It can be concluded that the proposed theory is accurate and simple in solving the thermoelastic bending behavior of functionally graded plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.623-631
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• 2017

Present paper deals with the temperature-dependent buckling analysis of sandwich nanocomposite plates resting on elastic medium subjected to magnetic field. The lamina layers are reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as uniform and functionally graded (FG). The elastic medium is considered as orthotropic Pasternak foundation with considering the effects of thermal loading on the spring and shear constants of medium. Mixture rule is utilized for obtaining the effective material properties of each layer. Adopting the Reddy shear deformation plate theory, the governing equations are derived based on energy method and Hamilton's principle. The buckling load of the structure is calculated with the Navier's method for the simply supported sandwich nanocomposite plates. Parametric study is conducted on the combined effects of the volume percent and distribution types of the CNTs, temperature change, elastic medium, magnetic field and geometrical parameters of the plates on the buckling load of the sandwich structure. The results show that FGX distribution of the CNTs leads to higher stiffness and consequently higher buckling load. In addition, considering the magnetic field increases the buckling load of the sandwich nanocomposite plate.