Static analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates according to a hyperbolic theory considering Zig-Zag and warping effects

In this paper, a variation of Murakami's Zig-Zag theory is proposed for the analysis of functionally graded plates. The new theory includes a hyperbolic sine term for the in-plane displacements expansion and accounts for through-the-thickness deformation, by considering a quadratic evolution of the transverse displacement with the thickness coordinate. The governing equations and the boundary conditions are obtained by a generalization of Carrera's Unified Formulation, and further interpolated by collocation with radial basis functions. Numerical examples on the static analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates demonstrate the accuracy of the present approach. The thickness stretching effect on such problems is studied. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.