Postbuckling response of functionally graded rectangular plates subjected to thermo-mechanical loading

The present work deals with the stability analysis of shear deformable functionally graded rectangular plates subjected to thermo-mechanical loads. The material properties of the functionally graded plates are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness, according to a simple power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. An analytical approach based on fast converging Chebyshev polynomials is presented. The formulation is based on first-order shear deformation plate theory and von-Karman nonlinearity. The temperature-dependent thermal and mechanical properties of FGM plate are considered. The variations in the buckling load/temperature due to various parameters are studied. The postbuckling response of the clamped FGM plate, subjected to in-plane edge compressive mechanical loading (uniaxial, biaxial, shear), thermal ( uniform in-plane temperature, transverse temperature gradient) and thermomechanical loading are presented. It is observed that volume fraction index greatly affects the buckling load/temperature of the plate.