Analytical and numerical survey of FG sandwich beams under the local loading and temperature-dependent properties

The analysis of sandwich beams with FG face sheets loaded by central indentor in various temperature conditions is carried out in this paper. Property distribution in the FG face sheets is according to power law function of FGMs and all properties of them are temperature dependent. In this model, First order shear deformation theory is used for the FG face sheets while three-dimensional elasticity is used for the flexible core. Two spreading length scales are introduced and calculated for defined sandwich beam, that characterized the behavior of sandwich beam under local loads. These spreading length scales, which are two functions of the beam material and geometrical properties, characterize the length over which a load on the upper surface of a beam is spread out by the face sheets and the core. The theoretical predictions in the present work are compared with FEM results by ANSYS and the results published in the literature for special cases, and reasonable agreement is found between them.