A Pressurized Functionally Graded Hollow Cylinder with Arbitrarily Varying Material Properties

The elastic analysis of a pressurized functionally graded material (FGM) annulus or tube is made in this paper. Different from existing studies, this study deals with an axisymmetrical FGM hollow cylinder or disk with arbitrarily varying material properties. A simple and efficient approach is suggested, which reduces the associated problem to solving a Fredholm integral equation. The resulting equation is approximately solved by expanding the solution as series of Legendre polynomials. The stresses and displacements can be represented in terms of the solution to the equation. For radius-dependent Young's modulus, numerical results of the distribution of the radial and circumferential stresses are presented graphically. Our results indicate that change in the gradient of the FGM tube does not produce a substantial variation of the radial stress, but strongly affects the distribution of the hoop stress. In particular, the hoop stress may reach its maximum at an internal position or at the outer surface when the tube is internally pressurized. The results obtained are helpful in designing FGM cylindrical vessels to prevent failure.