NON-LINEAR ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONALLY GRADED PLATES IN CYLINDRICAL BENDING BASED ON A NEW REFINED SHEAR

A new refined shear deformation theory for the nonlinear cylindrical bending behavior of functionally graded (FG) plates is developed in this paper.This new theory is based on theassumptionthatthetransversedisplacementsconsistofbendingandshearcomponents, in which the bending components do not contribute toward shear forces and, likewise, the shear components do not contribute toward bending moments.The theory accounts for a quadraticvariationofthetransverseshearstrainsacrossthethickness,andsatisfiesthezero traction boundary conditions on the top and bottom surfacesof the plate without using shear correction factors. The plates are subjected to pressure loading, and their geometric nonlinearity is introduced in the strain-displacement equations based on Von-Karman assumptions. The material properties of plate are assumed to vary according to the power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. The solutions are achieved by minimizing the total potential energy and the results are compared to the classical, the first-order and other higher-order theories reported in theliterature. It can be concluded thattheproposedtheoryisaccurateandsimpleinsolvingthenonlinearcylindricalbending behavioroffunctionally gradedplates.