Thermal postbuckling analysis of FGM skew plates

In this paper, the postbuckling behavior of functionally graded material (FGM) skew plates under thermal load is investigated based on the shear deformable finite element approach. The material is graded in the thickness direction according to a power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The Mori-Tanaka homogenization method is used to estimate the effective material properties from the volume fractions and the properties of the constituent materials. The temperature field is assumed to be uniform over the plate surface and varies in the thickness direction only. The nonlinear governing equations derived based on von Karman's assumptions are solved employing the direct iterative technique. The existence of bifurcation-type of buckling of FGM plates is examined by considering different parameters such as the constituent gradient index, temperature distribution, thickness-to-span ratio, aspect ratio, skew angle, and boundary conditions. The effect of temperature dependent material properties on the thermal postbuckling characteristics of FGM skew plates is also studied. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.