Buckling of Functionally Graded Plates under In-plane Compressive Loading

Abstract

In the present article, equilibrium and stability equations of rectangular functionally graded plates (FGPs) are determined using the variational approach. Derivation of equations are based on the classical plate theory. It is assumed that the material properties vary with the power product form of thickness coordinate variable z. Equilibrium and stability equations for FGPs are the same as the equations for homogeneous plates. The equilibrium and stability equations are employed to study the buckling behaviour of functionally graded plates with all edges simply supported and subjected to in-plane loading conditions. By equating power law index to zero, predicted relation is reduced to the buckling equation of homogeneous plates which is available in the literature.