Mechanical behavior of rectangular plates with functionally graded coefficient of thermal expansion subjected to thermal loading

This study analyzed an elastic, rectangular, and simply supported functionally graded material (FGM) plate with medium thickness subjected to linear temperature change in the z direction. Young's modulus and Poisson ratio of the FGM plates are assumed to remain constant throughout the entire plate. However, the coefficient of thermal expansion of the FGM plate varies continuously throughout the thickness direction in relation to the volume fraction of constituents defined by power-law, sigmoid, or exponential functions. The series solutions for the power-law FGM (P-FGM), sigmoid FGM (S-FGM), or exponential FGM (E-FGM) plates subjected to thermal loading are obtained based on the classical plate theory and Fourier series expansion. The analytical solutions for P-, S-, and E-FGM plates are verified by numerical results obtained with the finite element technique.