Thermo-Mechanical Analysis of 2D-FGM Thick Hollow Cylinder Using Graded Finite Elements

Abstract

In this paper a thick hollow circular cylinder with finite length made of two-dimensional functionally graded material (2D-FGM) and subjected to steady state thermal and mechanical loadings is considered. The volume fraction distribution of materials, geometry and thermo-mechanical load are assumed to be axisymmetric but not uniform along the axial direction. The finite element method with graded material properties within each element (graded finite elements) is used to model the structure. The effects of variation of materials distribution in two radial and axial directions on the temperature, displacements and stress distributions are studied. Also the effectiveness of the graded finite elements on accuracy of the stresses is investigated. The achieved results show that using 2D-FGM leads to a more flexible design so that behavior of structure, maximum amplitude of stresses and uniformity of temperature and stress distributions can be modified to a required manner by selecting suitable material distribution profiles in two directions. Also for identical meshes, the graded element formulations do better than conventional homogeneous elements.