Vibration and Stability Characteristics of Functionally Graded Plates Subjected to Localized Edge Loadings

Abstract

In this article, the influence of various types of localized in-plane edge loadings on vibration and stability characteristics of Functionally Graded Material (FGM) plates have been studied by developing finite element (FE) code in FORTRAN. Due to the complex arrangement of plates and situations arising during the real time application, loads acting on the member are not always uniform, rather nonuniform or localized in nature. For a such loading and boundary condition, the stress distribution within an element is highly non-uniform in nature. Therefore, the buckling loads are evaluated by dynamics approach. Here, in this study FGM plate is modelled using eight-noded isoparametric element with five degrees of freedom at each node. In the FE formulations, the influence of shear deformation and rotary inertia are included. In the FGM plate, the effective materials properties are assumed to vary in the thickness direction according to power-law distribution of volume fraction of the constituents. The analysis is carried out for four types of localized edge loads. Effect of different parameters such as boundary condition, side to thickness ratios, volume fraction exponent, load width ratio and the aspect ratio of the plate is considered to study the buckling characteristics of FGM plate. From the current study, it is mainly understood that the buckling characteristics of FGM plate of various volume fraction exponent is highly influenced by the position and width of localized in-plane edge loads. © The Institution of Engineers (India) 2024.