Thermoelastic stability analysis of functionally graded plates: An analytical approach

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the buckling of FGM plate under thermal loads. The plate is assumed to be under two types of thermal loadings, namely; uniform temperature rise and linear temperature rise through the thickness. It is assumed that the plate is a mixture of metal and ceramic, and that its properties change according to the power functions of the plate thickness (linear, quadratic, cubic, and inverse quadratic). By applying Von Karman's method general formulas have been obtained for the critical temperature of FGM plate. The appropriate formulas for homogenous and FGM plate are found as special cases. Effects of changing plate characteristics, material composition and volume fraction of constituent materials of FGM plate with simply supported edges are also investigated. The results obtained for homogeneous cases are compared with their counterparts in the literature. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.