A simple analytical approach for thermal buckling of thick functionally graded sandwich plates

Abstract

This study aimed to presents a simple analytical approach to investigate the thermal buckling behavior of thick functionally graded sandwich by employing both the sinusoidal shear deformation theory and stress function. The material properties of the sandwich plate faces are continuously varied within the plate thickness according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The core layer is still homogeneous and made of an isotropic material. The thermal loads are considered as uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises across the thickness direction. Numerical examples are presented to prove the effect of power law index, loading type and functionally graded layers thickness on the thermal buckling response of thick functionally graded sandwich.