Optimum distribution of materials for functionally graded rectangular plates considering thermal buckling

摘要

Metal-ceramic functionally graded (FG) materials are suitable for constructing structures subjected to a very high-temperature gradient. The composition of the FG materials constituents impacts the thermal buckling of the FG plates. Different forms of the composition for the FG plates have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, using the Carrera unified formulation, a higher-order plate theory, in the finite element method framework, the thermal buckling of rectangular FG plates with arbitrary composition distribution along thickness has been formulated using the linearized buckling analysis method. Three different composition forms: power, bilinear, and piecewise cubic interpolation polynomials (PCHIP), have been adopted for optimization. The optimization results show that the higher the degrees of freedom associated with the composition distribution, the higher the critical buckling temperature of the plate. In addition, the obtained optimum distributions are independent of the geometric ratios and the boundary conditions of the FG plates.