Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494

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Applied Mathematical Modelling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apm

Analysis of functionally graded plates using higher order shear

deformation theory
M.N.A. Gulshan Taj a,⇑, Anupam Chakrabarti a, Abdul Hamid Sheikh b
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India
b
School of Civil, Environment and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This work addresses a static analysis of functionally graded material (FGM) plates using
Received 24 December 2011 higher order shear deformation theory. In the theory the transverse shear stresses are rep-
Received in revised form 13 February 2013 resented as quadratic through the thickness and hence it requires no shear correction fac-
Accepted 24 March 2013
tor. The material property gradient is assumed to vary in the thickness direction. Mori and
Available online 10 April 2013
Tanaka theory (1973) [1] is used to represent the material property of FGM plate at any
point. The thermal gradient across the plate thickness is represented accurately by utilizing
Keywords:
the thermal properties of the constituent materials. Results have been obtained by employ-
Functionally graded material
Temperature
ing a C° continuous isoparametric Lagrangian finite element with seven degrees of freedom
Skew angle for each node. The convergence and comparison studies are presented and effects of the
Volume fraction index different material composition and the plate geometry (side-thickness, side–side) on
Finite element deflection and temperature are investigated. Effect of skew angle on deflection and axial
stress of the plate is also studied. Effects of material constant n on deflection and the tem-
perature distribution are also discussed in detail.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Functionally graded materials are a new class of composite materials where the material properties vary continuously to
yield a predetermined composition profile. The functionally graded materials are microscopically heterogeneous and made
from two isotropic materials such as metals and ceramics. The functionally graded material plates/panels have received con-
siderable attention among the researchers in past two decades due to its ideal performance e.g., high heat resistance of
ceramics on one side, and large mechanical strength and toughness of metal on the other side. Unlike, composite materials
they have smooth and continuous variation across the adjoining layers. By spatially varying the microstructure, the material
can be tailored for a particular application to yield optimal thermal and mechanical behavior. Due to the above mentioned
reasons FGM have gained many applications in a wide variety of engineering fields which include nuclear structures, bio-
medical engineering, electrical engineering, aircraft engineering, nano FGM and has various industrial applications also.
The following literature review provides a background for the present research.
Reddy [2] presented Navier’s solution for the analysis of FGM rectangular plates and considered the effect of geometric
non-linearity into account. In the study, finite element model is presented based on third order shear deformation theory.
Analysis of skew rhombic plates using simple three noded element is performed by Sengupta [3]. Analysis of parallelogram
shaped plates using a Mindlin nine noded heterosis elements is carried out by Butalia et al. [4]. The performance of the ele-
ment was checked by adopting large skew angles under different boundary and loading conditions. Qian et al. [5] have used

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 1332 285844; fax: +91 1332 275568.
E-mail address: gulshantaj19@yahoo.co.in (M.N.A. Gulshan Taj).

0307-904X/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2013.03.058
 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494 8485

the meshless local Petrov–Galerkin method for the static analysis of thick rectangular functionally graded elastic plate. They
concluded that the response of the composite plate lies between ceramic and metal plate when static and dynamic analysis
has been performed. Static analysis of the functionally graded plate by collocation multiquadric radial basis functions is gi-
ven by Ferreira et al. [6]. It is found that, if the Poisson’s ratio has wide variation between ceramic and metal then the two
homogenization schemes namely, Voigt rule of mixture and Mori–Tanaka method produces quite different results. Talha and
Singh [7] performed the static analysis of functionally graded material plates by higher order shear deformation theory with
a special modification in the transverse displacement. However, they have not considered any thermal effect in the analysis.
Wu et al. [8] presented the static and dynamic responses of the functionally graded materials rectangular plate using qua-
dratic extrapolation technique and finite double Chebyshev series for discretization. Analysis of symmetric and un-symmet-
ric skew composite plates is carried out by Chakrabarti et al. [9] using new triangular finite element. Praveen and Reddy [10]
analyzed nonlinear static and dynamic response of FGM plates subjected to mechanical and thermal load based on the Mind-
lin’s first order shear deformation plate theory. Exact solutions for static and dynamic deformations of a FGM plate are given
by Vel and Batra [11]. They utilized Mori–Tanka scheme and self consistent scheme to assess the material properties of the
plate at different locations.
From the literature review it is observed that vey less work is carried out on analysis of FGM plates using higher order
shear deformation theory and so far, there is no literature available for static analysis of FGM considering accurate temper-
ature distribution based on the thermal properties of the constituent materials. Also, there is no result available in the lit-
erature for static analysis of FGM skew plates. Hence in the present paper, an attempt has been made to develop a finite
element model based on higher order shear deformation theory that requires no shear correction. A Co finite element with
seven degrees of freedom per node is proposed to carry out the analysis. It is assumed that material properties of FGM are
changed gradually along the thickness of the plate from a ceramic rich surface to a metal rich surface. Mori and Tanaka the-
ory [1] is used to represent the material property of FGM at any point, which includes the Young’s modulus (E), Poisson’s
ratio (c), thermal conductivity (k), thermal expansion (a) and temperature (T). The effects of volume fraction (n) of the mate-
rial constituents on the static response of the FGM plate with different combinations of the boundary conditions and plate
geometry are investigated.

2. Homogenization of material properties

The FGM plate is made of two randomly distributed isotropic constituents (ceramic and metal), the macroscopic response
of the composite is isotropic, and the composition of the composite varies only in the thickness direction. By power law dis-
tribution, the effective property of the functionally graded material plate at any height z can be expressed as
PðzÞ ¼ ðPc  Pm ÞV c ðzÞ þ Pm
 n
z 1 ð1Þ
where V c ðzÞ ¼ þ ; 0 6 n 6 1;
h 2
where Pm and Pc denotes the material properties of the metal and ceramic, respectively. Vc is the volume fraction of the cera-
mic and n is the volume fraction index. Further, the volume fraction of the ceramic and metal phases are related by the equa-
tion Vc + Vm = 1.0.
According to the Mori–Tanaka scheme [1] the effective bulk modulus (B), and the effective shear modulus (G), modulus of
Elasticity (E), Poisson’s ratio (c), effective heat conductivity coefficient (k), coefficient of thermal expansion (a) and temper-
ature (T) at any point within the FGM plate are given by
B  Bm Vc
¼ ;
Bc  Bm 1 þ ð1  V c Þ 3ðBc Bm Þ
3Bm þ4Gm
G  Gm Vc Gm ð9Bm þ 8Gm Þ
¼ ; where f 1 ¼ ;
Gc  Gm 1 þ ð1  V c Þ 3ðGc Gm Þ
3Gm þf 1
6ðBm þ 2Gm Þ
9GB 3B  2G
E¼ ; c¼ ;
3B þ G 6B þ 2G ð2Þ
k  km Vc
¼ ;
kc  km 1 þ ð1  V c Þ ðkc km Þ
3km
 
ac  am 1 1  V c Vc
a ¼ am ð1  V c Þ þ ac V c þ 1
  ;
Bc
 B1m B Bm Bc
TðzÞ ¼ T m þ ðT c  T m Þgðz; hÞ;
where
2  2zþhnþ1 2zþh2nþ1 2zþh3nþ1 3
2zþh kcm k2cm k3cm
1 6 2h  ðnþ1Þkm 2h þ ð2nþ1Þk 2 2h
 ð3nþ1Þk 3 2h 7
gðz; hÞ ¼ 4 m m
5;
C þ k4cm 2zþh4nþ1  k5cm 2zþh5nþ1
ð4nþ1Þk4m 2h ð5nþ1Þk5m 2h
8486 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494

in which
2 3 4 5
kcm kcm kcm kcm kcm
C ¼1 þ  þ  and kcm ¼ kc  km :
ðn þ 1Þkm ð2n þ 1Þk2m ð3n þ 1Þk3m ð4n þ 1Þk4m ð5n þ 1Þk5m

The subscripts m and c appears in the above equation represents the ceramic and metal segment of the FGM plate. Also, it is
to be noted that the subscripts m and c is used to denote ceramic and metal segment throughout the paper.

3. Formulation

3.1. In plane displacement fields and strains

The geometry of the FGM plate taken for the present analysis is shown in Fig. 1 and geometry of the FGM plate with skew
alignment is depicted in Fig. 2. The length and width of the plate are taken as a and b respectively, with thickness h. Middle of
the plate is taken as origin for material co-ordinates (x, y and z) of FGM plate. The top surface of the plate is ceramic rich (e.g.,
zirconia) and bottom surface of the plate is metal rich (e.g., aluminum). It is to be noted that, one can get the variation in
material profile by assuming the suitable value of volume fraction index (n) that appears in Eq. (1).
Using Reddy’s [2] higher order shear deformation theory, variation of the in plane displacements u, v and transverse dis-
placement w over the thickness of the plate may be expressed as

4z3
uðx; y; zÞ ¼ u0 þ zhx  2
cx ;
3h
4z3 ð3Þ
v ðx; y; zÞ ¼ v 0 þ zhy  2
cy ;
3h
wðx; yÞ ¼ w0 ;
where u0, v0 and w0 denotes the mid-plane displacement of a point along (x, y, z) co-ordinates. hx, hy are the bending rotations
in y and x directions and cx and cy are the assumed shear rotations in x, y directions, respectively.
The strain components and strain displacement relationships can be expressed as,
8 @u 4z3 @ cx
9
8 @u 9 > 0
þ z @hx
 3h >
> > >
> @x @x 2 @x >
>
>
> @@xv >
> >
> >
>
>
> >
> >
> @v 0
þ z @hy
 4z3 @ cy >
>
>
> >
> > @y
> @y 3h2 @y
>
>
< @y = < =
@v 4z3 @ cx v0 4z3 @ cy
fem g ¼ @u
@y
þ @x ¼ @u0
þ z @hx
 þ @@y þ z @hy  3h : ð4Þ
> > > @y @x 3h2 @x @y 2 @y >
>
> >
@w > >
> >
>
>
>
@u
þ >
> >
> @w0
þ h  4z2
c >
>
>
> @z @x > > x >
; >
: @ v þ @w > >
>
@x h2 x >
>
>
: @w0 4z2 ;
@z @y
@y
þ h y  h2 y
c
For the thermo-mechanical analysis of the plate, the total strain can be expressed in terms of mechanical and thermal strain
as
feg ¼ fem g þ fet g; ð5Þ
where {em} and {et} denotes the mechanical and thermal strain respectively.
Mechanical strain in terms of total strain can be rewritten as
fem g ¼ ½Hfeg; ð6Þ
where {e} is the function of x and y and [H] is the function of thickness co-ordinate z.
Further, thermal strain can be expressed as

Fig. 1. Geometry of the FGM plate.

 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494 8487

Fig. 2. Co-ordinate system of the FGM skew plate.

8 9
>
> aðz; TÞ >
>
>
> >
>
Z h> >
< aðz; TÞ >
> =
2
fet g ¼ 0 dz: ð7Þ
h > >
2 >>0 >
>
>
> >
>
>
: >
;
0
Hence to combine Eqs. (5) and (6), the total strain can be described as,
feg ¼ ½Hfeg þ fet g: ð8Þ

3.2. Constitutive relationship

The stress–strain relationship for the FGM plate can be written as

frg ¼ ½Q feg; ð9Þ
where constitutive matrix
2 3
Q 11 Q 12 0 0 0
6 7
6 Q 21 Q 22 0 0 0 7
6 7
½Q  ¼ 6
60 0 Q 33 0 0 7:
7 ð10Þ
6 7
40 0 0 Q 44 0 5
0 0 0 0 Q 55
The term Qij can be obtained from the material properties which is the function of the depth (z) and temperature (T) of the
plate.
Eðz; TÞ
Q 11 ¼ Q 22 ¼ ;
1  c2
cEðz; TÞ
Q 12 ¼ Q 21 ¼ ; ð11Þ
1  c2
Eðz; TÞ
Q 33 ¼ Q 44 ¼ Q 55 ¼ :
2ð1 þ cÞ

3.3. Virtual work in the FGM plate

The virtual work of the FGM plate can be expressed as

ZZZ
dU ¼ fdegT frgdxdydz: ð12Þ

By using Eq. (9) the above equation can be written as

8488 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494

Fig. 3. Nine node isoparametric element with node numbering.

ZZZ
dU ¼ fdegT ½Q fegdxdydz: ð13Þ

According to Eq. (8) the above equation can be further developed as

ZZZ ZZZ
dU ¼ fdegT ½HT ½Q ½Hfegdxdydz þ fdegT ½HT ½Q fet gdxdydz; ð14Þ

where [Q] is the elastic constitutive matrix obtained from elastic properties of the constituents as given in Eq. (10). [H] is the
matrix of order 5  15 and contains the terms involving z and h as shown below.
2 3
4z3
1 0 0 0 0 z 0 0 0 0 0 0 3h2
0 0
6 7
60 1 0 0 0 0 z 0 0 0 0 0 0 4z3
0 7
6 3h2
7
6 7
6 4z 7
3
½H ¼ 6 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 z 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7:
6 3h 7
6 4z2 7
60 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 7
4 h2 5
4z2
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 h2
0 0 0

Finally, Eq. (14) can be rewritten as

ZZ ZZ
dU ¼ fdegT ½Dfegdxdy þ fdegT ½F t dxdy; ð15Þ

where [D] and [Ft] are known as rigidity matrix and thermal load vector and the corresponding expressions are given below.
Z h Z h
2 2
½D ¼ ½HT ½Q ½Hdz and ½F t  ¼ ½HT ½Q fet gdz:
h h
2 2

4. Finite element formulation

4.1. Element description

The geometry of the nine noded isoparametric Lagrangian element taken for the analysis is depicted in Fig. 3. Each node
has seven degrees of freedom (u, v, w, hx, hy, cx and cy) with a total of sixty three degrees of freedom for the element. The
element has an arbitrary rectangular geometry in x–y coordinate system. To have a regular rectangular geometry the ele-
ment is mapped to n–g plane.
The shape functions used for the present element are,
 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494 8489

1 1 1
N1 ¼ ðn  1Þðg  1Þng; N2 ¼ ðn þ 1Þðg  1Þng; N3 ¼ ðn þ 1Þðg þ 1Þng;
4 4 4
1 1 2 1
N4 ¼ ðn  1Þðg þ 1Þng; N5 ¼  ð1  n Þð1  gÞg; N6 ¼  ð1 þ nÞðg2  1Þn; ð16Þ
4 2 2
1 1
N7 ¼  ðn2  1Þð1 þ gÞg; N8 ¼  ðn  1Þðg2  1Þn; N9 ¼ ð1  n2 Þð1  g2 Þ:
2 2
By using the above nine shape functions the relationship between the strain and displacement can be established. Strain vec-
tor can be expressed as
feg ¼ ½BfXg; ð17Þ
where [B] is the strain displacement matrix and {X} is the nodal displacement vector, for the present nine node element it is
expressed as
½B ¼ ½ B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 ; fXg ¼ ½ X 1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X 9 :

4.2. Skew boundary transformation

For skew plates (Fig. 2) the edges of the boundary elements are not parallel to the global axes of the plate. Hence it is
necessary to transform the element matrices corresponding to global axes (x and y) to local axes (x0 and y0 ) by using nodal
transformation matrix [T] so that the degrees of freedom of the nodes can be conveniently expressed.
0 1
cos w  sin w 0 0 0 0 0
B C
B sin w cos w 0 0 0 0 C 0
B C
B0 0 1 0 0 0 0 C
B C
B C
Transformation matrix ½T ¼ B 0 0 0 cos w  sin w 0 0 C; ð18Þ
B C
B0 0 0 sin w cos w 0 0 C
B C
B C
@0 0 0 0 0 cos w  sin w A
0 0 0 0 0 sin w cos w
where w is the skew angle of the plate. For the elements which are not lying on the skew edges of the plate the transforma-
tion matrix has only non zero value for the principal diagonal elements, which is equal to one.

4.3. Governing equation for static analysis

The governing equation for static analysis of FGM plate can be derived in the following fashion. From Eq. (17), the var-
iation of strain vector can be expressed as
fdeg ¼ ½BfdXg; ð19Þ
Combining Eqs. (15) and (19), one can get the following expression.
ZZ  ZZ 
dU ¼ fdXgT ½BT ½D½Bdxdy fXg þ ½BT ½F t dxdy : ð20Þ

By utilizing Eq. (20), the stiffness matrix [K] and nodal thermal vector {Pt} may be expressed in the following form.
ZZ
½K ¼ ½BT ½D½Bdxdy; ð21Þ
ZZ
fPt g ¼ ½BT ½F t dxdy: ð22Þ

5. Numerical results & discussion

In this section, the static analysis of functionally graded material plate has been done by considering different combina-
tions of ceramic and metal constituents with several geometric parameters. For the sake of ease, this section is divided into
three phases. In the first phase, the convergence and validation of the present formulation is assessed by considering two
types of plate constituents (Al/Zr02 and Al/SiC). The results are presented for two loading conditions namely, uniformly dis-
tributed load and sinusoidal load. After ensuring the efficacy of the present formulation in static analysis, the effect of ther-
mal load on deflection and axial stresses of the plate is performed in the second phase. Next, in order to show new results,
the problem of skew plate is taken for which both the effects of mechanical and thermal load are studied and shown in the
form of tables and figures. In all the above phases, influence of geometric parameters such as boundary conditions (SSSS,
CCCC, CFCF and SCSC), aspect ratio (b/a), thickness ratio (a/h) and volume fraction index (n) on deflection and axial stresses
8490 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494

are evaluated. Following are the properties of the material taken for the analysis unless other specified. The properties of the
constituents are Ec = 151 GPa, qc = 3000 kg/m3, kc = 204 W/m K, ac = 23  106 1/K for Zirconia (Zr02); and Em = 70 GPa,
qm = 2707 kg/m3, km = 2.09 W/m K, am = 10  106 1/K for Aluminium (Al). The Poisson’s ratio (c) is assumed to be constant
and taken as 0.3 for both the materials (ceramic and metal).

5.1. Convergence and validation study-FGM plate subjected to uniform load of intensity q

The dimension of the FGM plate for the example is taken as a = b (Fig. 1). The origin of the co-ordinate system (x, y and z)
is taken as the mid-plane of the plate (i.e., z = 0). Convergence and validation study for displacement parameter is carried out
for Al/Zr02 plate as depicted in Table 1. Several values of thickness ratio a/h = 5, 10 and 20 are considered with different com-
binations of boundary conditions (SSSS, CCCC, CFCF and SCSC). The value of volume fraction index (n) is varied from ceramic
to metal part according to Eq. (1) to show its influence over deflection at the center of the plate. Based on the convergence
study it is observed that 8  8 mesh is sufficient for the static analysis using present nine noded isoparametric Lagrangian
element. Hence for functionally graded plate without skew alignment, an 8  8 mesh is adopted for all the cases. The non
dimensional parameters for central deflection, load and thickness co-ordinates considered are: w  ¼ wh ; q0 ¼ q 4 ; z ¼ hz . The
Em h
results were compared with Ferriera et al. [6], Qian et al. [5] which are based on higher order theory utilizing meshless meth-
ods and Talha and Singh [7] that based on third order shear deformation theory which is studied in the frame work of finite
element method. For thickness ratio of a/h = 5, the results were compared and quite close agreement among the results is
obvious. Other cases of thickness ratio (a/h = 10 and 20) are also shown as a second part of the Table 1. In all the cases shown,

Table 1
Non-dimensional central deflection variation with volume fraction index for different thickness ratio (a/h).

a/h Boundary condition Ref. Volume fraction index

Ceramic 0.5 1 2 Metal
5 SSSS Present (4  4)1 0.02480 0.03291 0.03670 0.04014 0.05349
Present (6  6) 0.02481 0.03293 0.03673 0.04017 0.05353
Present (8  8) 0.02482 0.03294 0.03674 0.04018 0.05353
Present (12  12) 0.02482 0.03294 0.03674 0.04018 0.05353
Ferreira et al. [6] 0.02477 0.03293 0.03666 0.04009 0.05343
Qian et al. [5] 0.02436 – 0.03634 0.03976 0.05253
Talha and Singh [7] 0.0250 0.0319 0.0358 0.0393 0.0541
CCCC 0.0109 0.0143 0.0161 0.0179 0.0235
CFCF 0.0569 0.0752 0.0840 0.0921 0.1226
SCSC 0.0158 0.0208 0.0233 0.0257 0.0340
10 SSSS 0.3459 0.4618 0.5131 0.5559 0.7461
CCCC 0.1216 0.1615 0.1800 0.1965 0.2623
CFCF 0.7625 1.0164 1.1302 1.2263 1.6449
SCSC 0.1920 0.2556 0.2845 0.3097 0.4142
20 SSSS 5.3187 7.1133 7.8947 8.5297 11.4734
CCCC 1.7129 2.2870 2.5409 2.7525 3.6950
CFCF 11.5336 15.4076 17.1075 18.4957 24.8796
SCSC 2.8063 3.7496 4.1640 4.5056 6.0537
1
Quantities within the parentheses indicates mesh size.

Table 2
Non-dimensional central deflection variation with volume fraction index for different thickness ratio (a/h) for Al/SiC square plate.

a/h Boundary condition Ref. Volume fraction index

Ceramic 0.5 1 2 Metal
5 SSSS Present 0.00911 0.01871 0.02390 0.02932 0.05353
Ferreira et al. [6] 0.00909 0.01871 0.02381 0.02903 0.05343
CCCC 0.00385 0.00786 0.01022 0.01303 0.02351
CFCF 0.01979 0.04140 0.05334 0.06623 0.12259
SCSC 0.00565 0.01158 0.01493 0.01875 0.03399
10 SSSS 0.12957 0.26686 0.33750 0.40501 0.74645
CCCC 0.04479 0.09198 0.11729 0.14333 0.26238
CFCF 0.27062 0.56953 0.72651 0.87988 1.64583
SCSC 0.07123 0.14646 0.18613 0.22577 4.14418
20 SSSS 2.00715 4.13755 5.21742 6.22113 11.4974
CCCC 0.64358 1.32550 1.67585 2.01002 3.70622
CFCF 4.12776 8.69888 11.0536 13.2733 24.9134
SCSC 1.05652 2.17682 2.74907 3.28893 6.07035
 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494 8491

Table 3
Non-dimensional axial stress variation at the top of the plate with volume fraction index for different thickness ratio (a/h).

a/h Boundary condition Volume fraction index

Ceramic 0.5 1 2 Metal
5 SSSS 7.4080 8.9358 9.6358 10.3693 15.9801
CCCC 3.7969 4.5828 4.9514 5.3456 8.1906
CFCF 0.2378 0.2415 0.2634 0.3093 0.5130
SCSC 5.0433 6.0780 6.5656 7.0913 10.8813
10 SSSS 29.0695 35.0285 37.7229 40.5257 62.7071
CCCC 14.4083 17.3605 18.7155 20.1431 31.0808
CFCF 0.3451 0.4959 0.5267 0.5264 7.4438
SCSC 18.9261 22.7912 24.5553 26.4083 40.8264
20 SSSS 115.522 139.157 149.818 160.893 249.198
CCCC 56.500 68.061 73.328 78.843 121.878
CFCF 4.1139 5.1598 5.5998 6.0584 8.8744
SCSC 73.5629 88.5570 95.2825 102.2494 158.686

Table 4
Non-dimensional central deflection for different aspect ratio (b/a) of the plate subjected to sinusoidal loading.

b/a Ref. Volume fraction index

Ceramic 0.5 1 2 5 Metal
0.5 Present 0.1187 0.1559 0.1749 0.1940 0.2164 0.2308
Talha and Singh [7] 0.1153 0.1447 0.1626 0.1814 0.2026 0.2158
1.0 Present 0.4780 0.6324 0.7068 0.7760 0.8556 0.9156
Talha and Singh [7] 0.5189 0.6556 0.7352 0.8135 0.8966 0.9545
1.5 Present 0.9262 1.2286 1.3704 1.4986 1.645 1.7618
Talha and Singh [7] 0.9742 1.2343 1.3832 1.5254 1.6724 1.7804
2.0 Present 1.3468 1.7888 1.9938 2.1758 2.3836 2.5546
Talha and Singh [7] 1.3412 1.7016 1.9062 2.0984 2.2948 2.4430

it is evident that rise in volume fraction index (n) tends to elevate the deflection of the plate irrespective of other parameters
(thickness ratio (a/h) and boundary condition) considered. The reason attributed to the above statement is the less stiffness
offered by metal plate (Al) compared to ceramic plate (Zr02). As expected, the plate with simply supported boundary con-
dition endures large amount of central deflection compared to other types of boundary conditions (CCCC, CFCF and SCSC).
Ascending thickness ratio (a/h) from 5 to 20 tends to deflect the plate more is the another outcome from the Table 1.
Non dimensional central deflection of Aluminium/SiC plate for several thickness ratios (a/h) is presented in Table 2. The
material property for Al (metal) is same as before while the material properties of SiC (ceramic) are taken as: Ec = 427 GPa,
qc = 3210 kg/m3 and c = 0.3. Once again, it is observed that the results are quite consistent with the published results by
Ferreira et al. [6]. The conclusions drawn from Table 1 pertain to volume fraction index (n), thickness ratio (a/h) and bound-
ary conditions holds true also for Table 2. Variation of non dimensional axial stress (rxx) at the centre on top surface of the
plate for different boundary conditions (SSSS, CCCC, CFCF, and SCSC) and thickness ratio (a/h) 5, 10, 20 is exhibited in Table 3.
Here, the simply supported plate ensures large tensile stresses compared to other boundary conditions.

5.2. Convergence and validation study-FGM plate subjected to distributed load of sinusoidal variation

In this example, FGM plate subjected to a normal pressure having sinusoidal variation given by q ¼ q0 sin pax sin pby with
thickness ratio (a/h) = 5 is evaluated and revealed in Table 4. In Table 4, an effort has been made to underline the influence
of aspect ratio (b/a) on dimensionless deflection of FGM plate at the center with CFCF boundary for several ranges of volume
3
 ¼ 100E
fraction index (n). The transverse displacement w is non-dimensioned as w mh
. The results obtained are compared
12a4 ð1c2 Þq m 0

with the results of Talha and Singh [7] which is based on third order shear deformation theory that consider quadratic var-
iation of transverse displacement and it is observed that the present results are in good agreement with the published re-
sults. It is visualized that, as the value of aspect ratio (b/a) of the plate approaches from 0.5 to 2.0, deflection of the plate
enhances at the center.

5.3. Functionally graded plate subjected to thermal load

The consequence of temperature on central deflection for different thickness ratio (a/h) 5, 10, 20, 100 is established in
Table 5. In this case, the bottom temperature of the plate is kept constant as 20 °C and temperature of the plate at top varied
from 20 to 300 °C. It is to be noted that, the negative deflection of the plate is observed under thermal loading, which is quite
opposite in the case of plate under mechanical loading. High thermal expansion because of the increasing temperature at the
8492 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494

Table 5
Effect of temperature on non-dimensional central deflection with volume fraction index for different thickness ratio (a/h).

a/h Temperature at top Volume fraction index

Ceramic 0.5 1 2 Metal
5 20 0 4.231  104 6.111  104 6.743  104 0
50 7.183  104 1.829  103 2.228  103 2.373  103 1.652  103
100 1.915  103 4.139  103 4.923  103 5.205  103 4.405  103
200 4.309  103 8.761  103 1.031  102 1.087  102 9.912  103
300 6.704  103 1.338  102 1.570  102 1.653  102 1.542  102
10 20 0 1.769  103 2.445  103 2.697  103 0
50 2.873  103 7.312  103 8.911  103 9.493  103 6.608  103
100 7.661  103 1.665  102 1.969  102 2.082  102 1.762  102
200 1.7724  102 3.503  102 4.124  102 4.347  102 3.965  102
300 2.682  102 5.351  102 6.280  102 6.613  102 6.167  102
20 20 0 7.072  103 9.778  103 1.079  102 0
50 1.149  102 2.924  102 3.564  102 3.797  102 2.643  102
100 3.064  102 6.619  102 7.874  102 8.327  102 7.048  102
200 6.894  102 1.400  101 1.650  101 1.734  101 1.586  101
300 1.072  101 2.140  101 2.592  101 2.645  101 2.467  101
100 20 0 1.760  101 2.434  101 2.686  101 0
50 2.861  101 7.280  101 8.873  101 9.454  101 6.586  101
100 7.630  101 1.648 1.960 2.073 1.755
200 1.717 3.488 4.107 4.339 3.948
300 2.670 5.327 6.253 6.586 6.140

top causes the plate to deflect in down ward direction. Variation of axial stress (rxx) at center on the top and bottom of the
plate is established in Table 6. The values of thickness ratio (a/h) are taken to be a/h = 5, 10, 20 and 100. When subjected to
thermal field, both the top and bottom of the ceramic and composite plate experiences stresses that are compression in nat-
ure, while the metal segment exhibits tensile stresses at the top and compressive stresses at the bottom.

5.4. Functionally graded skew plate subjected to uniform load of intensity q

In view to produce new results, the problem of a skew plate with dimension 2a and 2b (Fig. 2), simply supported at all the
edges is studied. Since no reference data is available on static analysis of skew functionally graded plates, the problem of an
isotropic skew plate is studied first for the validation purpose and the obtained results are compared with the results by
Sengupta [3], Butalia et al. [4] and Chakrabarti et al. [9]. It is observed that the obtained results are in good agreement with
the published results for different values of skew angle. For the sake of brevity, the results related to isotropic case are not

Table 6
Effect of temperature on non-dimensional axial stress at the centre of the plate with volume fraction index for different thickness ratio (a/h).

a/h Temperature at top Volume fraction index

Ceramic 1 Metal
Top Bottom Top Bottom Top Bottom
5 20 0.1377 0.1377 0.1477 0.1542 0.1841 0.1479
50 0.1376 0.3442 0.1448 0.3816 0.1842 0.3670
100 0.1376 0.6884 0.1400 0.7606 0.1843 0.7340
200 0.1375 1.3769 0.1303 1.5185 0.1845 1.4680
300 0.1374 2.0653 0.1206 2.2765 0.1845 2.2021
10 20 0.1377 0.1377 0.1477 0.1542 0.1841 0.1468
50 0.1376 0.3443 0.1446 0.3817 0.1844 0.3671
100 0.1374 0.6886 0.1394 0.7609 0.1848 0.7343
200 0.1370 1.3774 0.1290 1.5193 0.1857 1.4686
300 0.1366 2.0661 0.1187 2.2776 0.1865 2.2029
20 20 0.1377 0.1377 0.1475 0.1544 0.1841 0.1468
50 0.1372 0.3446 0.1436 0.3823 0.1851 0.3674
100 0.1365 0.6895 0.1371 0.7622 0.1869 0.7352
200 0.1350 1.3793 0.1242 1.5221 0.1902 1.4707
300 0.1335 2.0692 0.1113 2.2820 0.1936 2.2062
100 20 0.1377 0.1377 0.1402 0.1587 0.1841 0.1468
50 0.1277 0.3541 0.1174 0.3980 0.2070 0.3776
100 0.1112 0.7148 0.0793 0.7970 0.2450 0.7622
200 0.07809 1.4363 0.0031 1.5949 0.3212 1.5314
300 0.0450 2.1577 0.0730 2.3927 0.3973 2.3006
 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494 8493

Table 7
Non-dimensional central deflection variation with volume fraction index for different skew angle.

Skew angle Volume fraction index

Ceramic 0.5 1 2 5 Metal
15° 2.660 3.6082 4.0029 4.3201 4.6773 5.8157
30° 1.8799 2.5154 2.7908 3.0216 3.2628 4.0552
45° 0.9268 1.2394 1.3753 1.4856 1.6099 1.9991
60° 0.2572 0.3437 0.3815 0.4125 0.4474 0.5548

Table 8
Non dimensional central axial stress variation with volume fraction index for different skew angle.

Skew angle Volume fraction index

Ceramic 1 Metal
Top Bottom Top Bottom Top Bottom
15° 1.07  104 1.07  104 1.39  104 8.30  103 2.31  104 1.07  104
30° 8.46  103 8.46  103 1.09  104 6.56  103 1.82  104 8.46  103
45° 5.29  103 5.29  103 6.85  103 4.10  103 1.14  104 5.29  103
60° 2.21  103 2.21  103 2.87  103 1.71  103 4.77  103 2.21  103

Table 9
Effect of temperature on non-dimensional deflection variation with volume fraction index for different skew angle.

Skew angle Temperature at top Volume fraction index

Ceramic 0.5 1 2 Metal
15° 20 0 0.6564 0.9077 1.0013 0
50 1.0667 2.7144 3.3084 3.5244 2.4528
100 2.8445 6.1445 7.3095 7.7297 6.5429
30° 20 0 0.5133 0.7099 0.7833 0
50 0.8344 2.1227 2.5875 2.7574 1.9191
100 2.2251 4.8052 5.7169 6.0474 5.1176
45° 20 0 0.3154 0.4362 0.4817 0
50 0.5129 1.3040 1.5900 1.6956 1.1797
100 1.3678 2.9518 3.5129 3.7188 3.1459
60° 20 0 0.1330 0.1840 0.2033 0
50 0.2164 0.5499 0.6706 0.7156 0.4977
100 0.5771 1.2447 1.4816 1.5695 1.3272

Table 10
Effect of temperature on axial stress variation with volume fraction index for different skew angle.

Skew angle Temperature at top Volume fraction index

Ceramic 1 Metal
Top Bottom Top Bottom Top Bottom
15° 20 0.1706  108 0.1706  108 0.1867  108 0.1864  108 0.1684  108 0.1819  108
50 0.1779  108 0.4192  108 0.1980  108 0.4582  108 0.1515  108 0.4469  108
100 0.1902  108 0.8335  108 0.2169  108 0.9112  108 0.1235  108 0.8887  108
30° 20 0.2250  108 0.2250  108 0.2521  108 0.2347  108 0.4323  107 0.2400  108
50 0.2504  108 0.5372  108 0.2993  108 0.5709  108 0.1508  107 0.5729  108
100 0.2927  108 0.1058  109 0.3779  108 0.1131  109 0.1123  108 0.1128  109
45° 20 0.3050  108 0.3050  108 0.3419  108 0.3096  108 0.1406  108 0.3252  108
50 0.3483  108 0.7191  108 0.4250  108 0.7501  108 0.2402  108 0.7668  108
100 0.4205  108 0.1409  109 0.5634  108 0.1484  109 0.4062  108 0.1503  109
60° 20 0.3946  108 0.3946  108 0.4371  108 0.3968  108 0.3467  108 0.4207  108
50 0.4505  108 0.9305  108 0.5460  108 0.9630  108 0.4754  108 0.9921  108
100 0.5438  108 0.1824  109 0.7275  108 0.1907  109 0.6899  108 0.1944  109


 ¼ 100wD Eh3
given in the paper. The non dimensional central deflection w qa4
where D ¼ 12ð1 c2 Þ obtained for different skew angle
(15°, 30°, 45°, and 60°) is established in Table 7. When the skew angle of the FGM plate escalates from 15° to 60°, significant
fall-off in deflection of the plate is observed at the center. The dominance of volume fraction index (n) over the deflection
8494 M.N.A. Gulshan Taj et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 8484–8494

remains same as that observed for plate having no skew alignment. Therefore, it is concluded that hike in volume fraction
index (n) records more deflection irrespective of the nature of plate boundary. In Table 8, variation of axial stresses at the top
and bottom of the functionally graded skew plate is demonstrated. As anticipated, the plate with more skew angle (60°) cor-
responds to stresses that are low in magnitude compared to other cases of skew angles (15°, 30° and 45°). In addition, the top
surface of the plate experiences tensile stresses, while the bottom surface of the plate corresponds to compressive stresses is
observed.

5.5. Functionally graded skew plate subjected to thermal load

In this example, the effect of varying the temperature at the top of the plate at points on the centroidal axis of the trans-
verse displacement and axial stresses is depicted in Tables 9 and 10, respectively. The temperature at the bottom of the plate
remains constant as 20 °C while the temperature at the top of the plate is assorted from 20 to 100 °C. As observed in the case
of FGM plate with no skew boundary, the plate exhibits negative deflection parameter when subjected to only thermal field.
Also, the plate with skew angle 60° ensures minimum deflection while the plate with skew angle 15° records maximum va-
lue of deflection parameter. In addition, one can observe that when the temperature of the plate at top equals 20 °C there will
not be any deflection for all the cases of skew angles adopted. From Table 10, one can conclude that the plate lies in com-
pression zone for all the cases of thermal loading, except the case of metal segment having skew angle 15°.
It is worth to mention here that, all the above results corresponding to skew plates are presented for the first time using
higher order shear deformation theory.

6. Conclusions

The behavior of FGM plate with and without skew alignment is studied under mechanical and thermal load involving var-
ious boundary conditions using an efficient Co FE model based on higher order shear deformation theory. FGM material made
of metal/ceramic is considered to perform the numerical analysis. The effective material properties of each segment of the
plate are computed using the power law equation of the plate constituents. The significant conclusions drawn from the pres-
ent study are summarized below.

 The non dimensional deflection (w) and axial stress (rxx) increases as the volume fraction index (n) rises, irrespective of
the thickness ratio (a/h) and boundary condition.
 FGM plate with clamped boundary (CCCC) ensures least amount of deflection due to its high stiffness compared to other
types of boundary conditions.
 If aspect ratio (b/a) and thickness ratio (a/h) are enlarged, elevated value of deflection parameter at the center of the plate
is ascertained.
 FGM plate having straight and skew alignment confirms negative deflection, when subjected to thermal load and records
compressive stresses for all the cases of ceramic and composite plate.
 Increase in skew angle tends the plate to deflect less and tensile and compressive stresses are developed at the top and
bottom of the plate, respectively, when subjected to mechanical load.

The above findings on the static behavior of FGM plates by varying different parameters such as aspect ratio, temperature,
thickness ratio, skew angle and types of loadings are believed to be useful to designers and researchers involved in the field.

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