Thermo-elastic Bending Analysis of Functionally Graded Sandwich Plates by Hyperbolic Shear Deformation Theory

The thermo-elastic bending analysis of functionally graded ceramic-metal sandwich plates is presented in this study. The sandwich plate faces are assumed to be homogeneous and the core layer is constructed from FG material which its properties are varied through thickness according to the power-law equation. The hyperbolic shear deformation theory considering extension effect is employed for modeling the FG ceramic-metal sandwich plates. The presented theory is variationally consistent, does not require shear correction factor, and gives rise to transverse shear stress varying parabolically across the thickness. The governing equations are derived from principle of virtual work and the closed-form solutions are obtained using Navier method. The consideration of extension effect in presented formulation is examined and it is found that though it has no noticeable effect on transverse deflections and in-plane normal stresses, the obtained transverse shear stresses is quite affected by this term. Also the effects of thermal load, aspect ratio, thickness aspect ratio, thickness to side ratio and volume fraction index are investigated. It is observed that presented method is accurate and simple to use in comparison to other higher order shear deformation plate theories.