Analysis of Functionally Graded Cylindrical Vessels under Mechanical and Thermal Loads

In this paper, a static analysis of functionally graded cylinders under axisymmetric mechanical and thermal loads is presented. It is assumed that the distribution of material properties through the thickness of the cylinder is continuous and graded according to a power low distribution. For solving equations, two-dimensional finite element method is employed. To this end, a functionally graded material element is defined for accurate finite element modeling of cylinder with continuous distribution of material properties and avoiding the limitation in the radius to thickness ratio. Numerical results are obtained for a clamped cylinder subjected to a uniform internal pressure and a simply supported cylinder subjected to a temperature distribution through the thickness. In addition, the numerical results for thick and thin cylinders are obtained. The results show that the stress and temperature distribution in functionally graded cylindrical shells are dependent on the material kind and distribution of material properties and this dependency can be utilized for controlling the stress level.