Influences of Different Boundary Conditions and Hygro-Thermal Environment on the Free Vibration Responses of FGM Sandwich Plates Resting on Viscoelastic Foundation

Abstract

This paper investigates the free vibration of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates supported by different boundary conditions and influenced by a three-parameter viscoelastic foundation and hygro-thermal changes. Three types of FGM sandwich plates are studied and discussed, in which the FGM layers vary according to the power law rule and consist of ceramic and metal materials. An efficient and simple four-variable integral higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) is employed to model the analytical solution of the considered problem. Hamilton principle is implemented to obtain the plates’ governing equations and to derive the eigenvalue equation for the free vibration study. The model is verified by comparing numerical results with previous studies on the vibration of exponentially graded plates. New results are presented in this paper showing the influences of different boundary conditions, hygro-thermal changes, viscoelastic parameters, vibration modes, material exponents, and geometric dimensions.