Free vibration analysis of two-dimensional functionally graded cylindrical shells

In this paper, the free vibration of a two-dimensional functionally graded circular cylindrical shell is analyzed. The equations of motion are based on the Love’s first approximation classical shell theory. The spatial derivatives of the equations of motion and boundary conditions are discretized by the methods of generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) and generalized integral quadrature (GIQ). Two kinds of micromechanics models, viz. Voigt and Mori–Tanaka models are used to describe the material properties. To validate the results, comparisons are made with the solutions for FG cylindrical shells available in the literature. The results of this study show that the natural frequency of the material can be modified in order to meet the expected results through manipulation of the constituent volume fractions. A comprehensive comparison is then drawn between ordinary and 2-D FG cylindrical shells.     

Free vibration of functionally graded rectangular plates using first-order shear deformation plate theory

The main objective of this research work is to present analytical solutions for free vibration analysis of moderately thick rectangular plates, which are composed of functionally graded materials (FGMs) and supported by either Winkler or Pasternak elastic foundations. The proposed rectangular plates have two opposite edges simply-supported, while all possible combinations of free, simply-supported and clamped boundary conditions are applied to the other two edges. In order to capture fundamental frequencies of the functionally graded (FG) rectangular plates resting on elastic foundation, the analysis procedure is based on the first-order shear deformation plate theory (FSDT) to derive and solve exactly the equations of motion. The mechanical properties of the FG plates are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness of the plate and obey a power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents, whereas Poisson’s ratio is set to be constant. First, a new formula for the shear correction factors, used in the Mindlin plate theory, is obtained for FG plates. Then the excellent accuracy of the present analytical solutions is confirmed by making some comparisons of the results with those available in literature. The effect of foundation stiffness parameters on the free vibration of the FG plates, constrained by different combinations of classical boundary conditions, is also presented for various values of aspect ratios, gradient indices, and thickness to length ratios.     

Free vibration of a functionally graded annular sector plate integrated with piezoelectric layers

Based on the first order shear deformation theory, free vibration behavior of functionally graded (FG) annular sector plates integrated with piezoelectric layers is investigated. The distribution of electric potential along the thickness direction of piezoelectric layers which is assumed to be a combination of linear and sinusoidal functions, satisfies both open and closed circuit electrical boundary conditions. Through a reformulation of governing equations and harmonic motion assumption, a novel decoupling method is suggested to transform the six second order coupled partial differential equations of motion into two eighth order and fourth order equations. A Fourier series method is then employed to present analytical solutions for free vibration of smart FG annular sector plates with simply supported radial edges and arbitrarily supported circular edges. The results, which can be used as a benchmark and suitable for design purposes, are verified with those reported in the literature. Finally, by presenting extensive ranges of frequencies, the effects of geometric parameters, power law index, FG and piezoelectric materials, electrical and mechanical boundary conditions as well as the piezoelectric layer thickness on vibration response of smart annular sector plates are discussed in detail.     

Buckling and vibration analysis of functionally graded magneto-electro-thermo-elastic circular cylindrical shells

Buckling and vibration analysis of functionally graded magneto-electro-thermo-elastic (FGMETE) circular cylindrical shell are carried out in the present work. The Hamilton principle, higher order shear deformation theory, constitutive equation considering coupling effect between mechanical, electric, magnetic, thermal are considered to derive the equations of motion and distribution of electrical potential, magnetic potential along the thickness direction of FGMETE circular cylindrical shell. The influences of various external loads, such as axis force, temperature difference between the bottom and top surface of shell, surface electric voltage and magnetic voltage, on the buckling response of FGMETE circular cylindrical shell are investigated. The natural frequency obtained by present method is compared with results in open literature and a good agreement is obtained.     

Free vibration analysis of carbon nanotube-reinforced functionally graded composite shell structures

This paper deals with free vibration analysis of functionally graded composite shell structures reinforced by carbon nanotubes. Uniform and three distributions of carbon nanotubes which are graded in the thickness direction of the structure are considered. The effective material properties are determined via a micro-mechanical model using some efficiency parameters. The equations of motion are developed based on a discrete double directors shell finite element formulation which introduces the transverse shear deformations via a higher-order distribution of the displacement field. Comparison studies are carried out for various functionally graded composite shell structures reinforced by carbon nanotubes in order to highlight the applicability and the efficiency of the proposed model in the prediction of the vibrational behavior of such shell structures.     

Free vibration characteristics of a functionally graded beam by finite element method

This paper presents the dynamic characteristics of functionally graded beam with material graduation in axially or transversally through the thickness based on the power law. The present model is more effective for replacing the non-uniform geometrical beam with axially or transversally uniform geometrical graded beam. The system of equations of motion is derived by using the principle of virtual work under the assumptions of the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory. The finite element method is employed to discretize the model and obtain a numerical approximation of the motion equation. The model has been verified with the previously published works and found a good agreement with them. Numerical results are presented in both tabular and graphical forms to figure out the effects of different material distribution, slenderness ratios, and boundary conditions on the dynamic characteristics of the beam. The above mention effects play very important role on the dynamic behavior of the beam.     

Free vibration analysis of circular plates by differential transformation method

This study analyses the free vibrations of circular thin plates for simply supported, clamped and free boundary conditions. The solution method used is differential transform method (DTM), which is a semi-numerical-analytical solution technique that can be applied to various types of differential equations. By using DTM, the governing differential equations are reduced to recurrence relations and its related boundary/regularity conditions are transformed into a set of algebraic equations. The frequency equations are obtained for the possible combinations of the outer edge boundary conditions and the regularity conditions at the center of the circular plate. Numerical results for the dimensionless natural frequencies are presented and then compared to the Bessel function solution and the numerical solutions that appear in literature. It is observed that DTM is a robust and powerful tool for eigenvalue analysis of circular thin plates.     

Bifurcation and chaos of thin circular functionally graded plate in thermal environment

A ceramic/metal functionally graded circular plate under one-term and two-term transversal excitations in the thermal environment is investigated, respectively. The effects of geometric nonlinearity and temperature-dependent material properties are both taken into account. The material properties of the functionally graded plate are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness, according to a power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. Using the principle of virtual work, the nonlinear partial differential equations of FGM plate subjected to transverse harmonic forcing excitation and thermal load are derived. For the circular plate with clamped immovable edge, the Duffing nonlinear forced vibration equation is deduced using Galerkin method. The criteria for existence of chaos under one-term and two-term periodic perturbations are given with Melnikov method. Numerical simulations are carried out to plot the bifurcation curves for the homolinic orbits. Effects of the material volume fraction index and temperature on the criterions are discussed and the existences of chaos are validated by plotting phase portraits, Poincare maps. Also, the bifurcation diagrams and corresponding maximum Lyapunov exponents are plotted. It was found that periodic, multiple periodic solutions and chaotic motions exist for the FGM plate under certain conditions.     

Free vibration and buckling of tapered columns made of axially functionally graded materials

This paper presents a unified model to analyze the free vibration and buckling of axially functionally graded Euler-Bernoulli columns subjected to an axial compressive force. The material properties vary linearly along the longitudinal direction, and column with circular and square cross sections is linearly tapered. The governing differential equations of the problem are derived and solved using the direct integral method combined with the determinant search technique. The computed results are compared with those reported in the literature and obtained from the finite element software ADINA. Numerical examples for natural frequency, buckling load and their corresponding mode shapes are given to highlight the effects of modular ratio, taper ratio and cross sectional shape as well as the end condition.     

Vibration analysis of functionally graded plate with a moving mass

A hybrid method is proposed to predict the dynamic behavior of functionally graded (FG) plate subjected to a moving mass. The governing equations of motion of FG plate are derived using the Kirchhoff plate theory and Lagrange equation. Improved Rayleigh–Ritz solution is used to treat the spatial partial derivatives. Penalty method is employed to deal with the constraints, and the energy terms due to boundary conditions are included in Lagrange, hence it is not necessary to particularly consider the constraints in the modeling process. And the combination of simple polynomials and trigonometric functions is selected as the admissible functions. The advantage of this improvement in Rayleigh–Ritz method is that it is not needed to find satisfied admissible functions for different boundary conditions while the convergence of the solution is improved. Meanwhile, the method can be used to handle the versatile boundary conditions. Differential quadrature method (DQM) as a step-by-step time integration scheme is employed for discretization of temporal derivatives. The validated results show that the presented method is very reliable and efficient, and its convergence and accuracy are also better compared to finite element method for solving the dynamic problems of FG plate with moving loads (force and mass). Moreover, the influences of material properties and boundary conditions on maximum dynamic deflections are investigated, as well as moving speeds and inertial effects of loads (mass and force). Although only four edge boundary conditions are addressed in the present work, the proposed procedure is applicable for any arbitrary edge boundary conditions.     

Free vibration analysis of cracked postbuckled plate

In this paper, a methodology is introduced to address the free vibration analysis of cracked plate subjected to a uniaxial inplane compressive load for the first time. The crack, assumed to be open and at the edge is modeled by a massless linear rotational spring. The governing differential equations are derived using the Mindlin theory, taking into account the effect of initial imperfection. The response is assumed to be consisting of static and dynamic parts. For the static part, differential equations are discretized using the differential quadrature element method and resulting nonlinear algebraic equations are solved by an arc-length strategy. Assuming small amplitude vibrations of the plate about its buckled state and exploiting the static solution in the linearized vibration equations, the dynamic equations are converted into a non-standard eigenvalue problem. Finally, natural frequencies and modal shapes of the cracked buckled plate are obtained by solving this eigenvalue problem. To ensure the validity of the suggested approach an experimental setup and a numerical finite element model have been made to analyze the vibration of a cracked square plate with simply supported boundary conditions. Also, several case-studies of cracked buckled plate problem have been solved utilizing the proposed method, and effects of selected parameters have been studied. The results show that the applied load and geometric imperfection as well as the position, size and depth of the crack have different impact on natural frequencies of the plate.     

Effect of hydrostatic pressure on vibrating functionally graded circular plate coupled with bounded fluid

This study investigates free vibration of a thick FG circular plate in contact with an inviscid, and incompressible fluid. Analysis of plate is based on First-order Shear Deformation Reissner–Mindlin Theory (FSDT) with consideration of rotational inertial effects and transverse shear stresses. Potential theory together Bernouli's equation are utilized to obtain the fluid pressure on the free surface of the plate. The governing equation of the oscillatory behavior of the fluid is obtained by solving Laplace equation and satisfying its boundary conditions. The natural frequencies and mode shapes of the plate are determined using Chebyshev polynomials. The effects of the geometrical parameters such as plate thickness to its radius ratio, boundary conditions, fluid density, volume fraction index, and height of the fluid on natural frequencies and mode shapes are investigated. Comparison of analytically outcome of this study is made with similar publications in the literature.     

Thermoelastic vibration and buckling analysis of functionally graded piezoelectric cylindrical shells

This paper presents the report of an investigation into thermoelastic vibration and buckling characteristics of the functionally graded piezoelectric cylindrical, where the functionally graded piezoelectric cylindrical shell is made from a piezoelectric material having gradient change along the thickness, such as piezoelectricity and dielectric coefficient et al. Here, utilizing Hamilton’s principle and the Maxwell equation with a quadratic variation of the electric potential along the thickness direction of the cylindrical shells and the first-order shear deformation theory, and taking into account both the direct piezoelectric effect and the converse piezoelectric effect, the thermoelastic vibration and buckling characteristics of functionally graded piezoelectric cylindrical shells composed of BaTiO₃/PZT − 4, BaTiO₃/PZT − 5A and BaTiO₃/PVDF are, respectively, calculated. The effects of material composition (volume fraction exponent), thermal loading, external voltage applied and shell geometry parameters on the free vibration characteristics are described, and the axial critical load, critical temperature and critical control voltage are obtained.     

An accurate mathematical study on the free vibration of stepped thickness circular/annular Mindlin functionally graded plates

An analytical solution based on a new exact closed form procedure is presented for free vibration analysis of stepped circular and annular FG plates via first order shear deformation plate theory of Mindlin. The material properties change continuously through the thickness of the plate, which can vary according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents, whereas Poisson’s ratio is set to be constant. Based on the domain decomposition technique, five highly coupled governing partial differential equations of motion for freely vibrating FG plates were exactly solved by introducing the new potential functions as well as using the method of separation of variables. Several comparison studies were presented by those reported in the literature and the FEM analysis, for various thickness values and combinations of stepped thickness variations of circular/annular FG plates to demonstrate highly stability and accuracy of present exact procedure. The effect of the geometrical and material plate parameters such as step thickness ratios, step locations and the power law index on the natural frequencies of FG plates is investigated.     

Stress and free vibration analysis of functionally graded beams using static Green's functions

In this paper static Green's functions for functionally graded Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beams are presented. All material properties are arbitrary functions along the beam thickness direction. The closed-form solutions of static Green's functions are derived from a fourth-order partial differential equation presented in [2]. In combination with Betti's reciprocal theorem the Green's functions are applied to calculate internal forces and stress analysis of functionally graded beams (FGBs) under static loadings. For symmetrical material properties along the beam thickness direction and symmetric cross-sections, the resulting stress distributions are also symmetric. For unsymmetrical material properties the neutral axis and the center of gravity axis are located at different positions. Free vibrations of functionally graded Timoshenko beams are also analyzed [3]. Analytical solutions of eigenfunctions and eigenfrequencies in closed-forms are obtained based on reference [2]. Alternatively it is also possible to use static Green's functions and Fredholm's integral equations to obtain approximate eigenfunctions and eigenfrequencies by an iterative procedure as shown in [1]. Applying the Sensitivity Analysis with Green's Functions (SAGF) [1] to derive closed-form analytical solutions of functionally graded beams, it is possible to modify the derived static Green's functions and include terms taking cracks into account, which are modeled by translational or rotational springs. Furthermore the SAGF approach in combination with the superposition principle can be used to take stiffness jumps into account and to extend static Green's functions of simple beams to that of discontinuous beams by adding new supports. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The dynamic stability and nonlinear vibration analysis of stiffened functionally graded cylindrical shells

A theoretical model is developed to study the dynamic stability and nonlinear vibrations of the stiffened functionally graded (FG) cylindrical shell in thermal environment. Von Kármán nonlinear theory, first-order shear deformation theory, smearing stiffener approach and Bolotin method are used to model stiffened FG cylindrical shells. Galerkin method and modal analysis technique is utilized to obtain the discrete nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Based on the static condensation method, a reduction model is presented. The effects of thermal environment, stiffeners number, material characteristics on the dynamic stability, transient responses and primary resonance responses are examined.     

Bending,buckling and free vibration analysis of incompressible functionally graded plates using higher order shear and normal deformable plate theory

In the present study, higher order shear and normal deformable plate theory is developed for analysis of incompressible functionally graded rectangular thick plates. Also, The effect of incompressibility is studied on the static, dynamic and stability responses of thick plate. It is assumed that plate is incompressible and the incompressibility condition is considered in addition to the governing equations for determining the unknowns. Since the plate is thick, higher order shear and normal deformable theory is applied so that the Legendre polynomials are used for expansion of displacement field components in the thickness direction. Also, it is supposed that material properties vary through the thickness based on the power law function. Utilizing the variational approach, governing equations for static, stability and dynamic analysis of plate are derived. Resulted equations are solved analytically for simply supported plates. Finally, the effects of material properties and dimensions on the response of incompressible plates are investigated in details.     

Free vibration of centrifugally stiffened axially functionally graded tapered Timoshenko beams using differential transformation and quadrature methods

The free bending vibration of rotating axially functionally graded (FG) Timoshenko tapered beams (TTB) with different boundary conditions are studied using Differential Transformation method (DTM) and differential quadrature element method of lowest order (DQEL). These two methods are capable of modelling any beam whose cross sectional area, moment of inertia and material properties vary along the beam. In order to verify the competency of these two methods, natural frequencies are obtained for problems by considering the effect of material non-homogeneity, taper ratio, shear deformation parameter, rotating speed parameter, hub radius and tip mass. The results are tabulated and compared with the previous published results wherever available.     

Modeling of functionally graded circular energy harvesters due to flexoelectricity

Flexoelectric effect can be enhanced in micro/nano scale due to its size-dependency, making it particularly suitable for energy harvesting. In this work, a theoretical model is built to characterize the functionally graded circular flexoelectric energy harvesters based on the Kirchhoff thin plate hypothesis. Using Hamilton's principle, both the force balance equation and current balance equation are obtained. Approximated closed-form solutions of the energy harvesting performances are achieved through the assumed-mode method. Numerical analysis results demonstrate that the clamped circular energy harvesters with the ratio of the electrode radius to the plate radius be 0.64 will generate the maximum electrical output. The volume fraction coefficient has a significant impact on the resonant frequency, electrical output as well as the optimal load resistance. Meanwhile, shrinking the thickness of the circular energy harvester from 10µm to 0.1µm will lead to a remarkable increase of the optimal energy conversion efficiency from 10⁻⁶ to 10⁻². Furthermore, the strain gradient effect is examined to result in a higher resonant frequency while suppress the electrical output particularly if the length scale parameter is relatively large.     

Fuzzy finite element analysis for free vibration response of functionally graded semi-rigid frame structures

This study contributes a practical approach for the fuzzy free vibration quantification of functionally graded semi-rigid frame structures. A new Timoshenko beam element is formulated to include the connection rigidity for the analysis purpose. The finite element formulation is general to present different semi-rigid conditions, whereas hinged and rigid connections are special cases. Furthermore, an efficient response-surface-based fuzzy analysis is established based on the α–cut strategy and first-order Taylor's approximation to predict the fuzzy natural frequencies of the structures. Highlighted point is that various input uncertainties, such as the material characteristics, the member dimensions, and the connection rigidities, can be incorporated in the analysis by the presented fuzzy methodology. Computational efficiency and correctness of the proposed method are shown, and the effect of the uncertainties, especially of the connection rigidities, on the natural frequency of semi-rigid FGM structures is explored via solving some numerical examples.