Low velocity impact response of thick FGM beams with general boundary conditions in thermal field

Low velocity impact response of an FGM beam with through-the-thickness distributed properties is studied in this paper. Third order shear deformation beam theory is implemented to derive the governing equations. A modification of the Hertz contact law which is suitable for graded materials is adopted. A Ritz-based solution in space domain appropriate for various in-plane and out-of-plane boundary conditions is developed. Solution of the resulted system of equations in time domain is accomplished via the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The developed method is validated with the results of commercial finite elements software. The effects of various involved parameters, such as graded property profile, impactor velocity, impactor mass, boundary conditions, thermal environment and impact position are studied in detail. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.