Thermoelastic Response of FGM Plates with Temperature-Dependent Properties Resting on Variable Elastic Foundations

Abstract

This paper deals with thermomechanical bending of functionally graded material (FGM) plates under various boundary conditions and resting on two-layer elastic foundations. One of these layers is Winkler springs with a variable modulus while the other is considered as a shear layer with a constant modulus. The plates are considered of the type having two opposite sides simply-supported, and the two other sides having combinations of simply-supported, clamped, and free boundary conditions. The temperature is obtained by solving the one-dimensional equation of heat conduction. The material properties of the plate are assumed to be graded continuously across the panel thickness. A simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents is used for estimating the effective material properties such as temperature-dependent thermoelastic properties. The governing equations are derived based on the sinusoidal shear deformation plate theory including the external load and thermal effects. The results of this theory are compared with those of other shear deformation theories. Various numerical results including the effect of boundary conditions, power-law index, plate aspect ratio, temperature difference, elastic foundation parameters, and side-to-thickness ratio on the bending of FGM plates are presented.