Mechanical and thermal buckling of exponentially graded sandwich plates

This article presents an analytical solution for the mechanical and thermal buckling of exponentially graded material (EGM) sandwich plates. The solution is obtained using a four-variable refined plate theory. Two types of sandwich plates are investigated: one with EGM face sheets and homogeneous core; the other with EGM core and homogeneous face sheets. The governing equations are derived based on the principle of virtual work and then solved through Navier method. The results on critical buckling load and temperature change of simply supported EGM sandwich plates are obtained. The influences of several parameters on buckling behaviors are discussed.