Combined influence of variable distribution models and boundary conditions on the thermodynamic behavior of FG sandwich plates lying on various elastic foundations

Abstract

The present research investigates the thermodynamically bending behavior of FG sandwich plates, laying on the Winkler/Pasternak/Kerr foundation with various boundary conditions, subjected to harmonic thermal load varying through thickness. The supposed FG sandwich plate has three layers with a ceramic core. The constituents' volume fractions of the lower and upper faces vary gradually in the direction of the FG sandwich plate thickness. This variation is performed according to various models: a Power law, Trigonometric, Viola-Tornabene, and the Exponential model, while the core is constantly homogeneous. The displacement field considered in the current work contains integral terms and fewer unknowns than other theories in the literature. The corresponding equations of motion are derived based on Hamilton's principle. The impact of the distribution model, scheme, aspect ratio, side-to-thickness ratio, boundary conditions, and elastic foundations on thermodynamic bending are examined in this study. The deflections obtained for the sandwich plate without elastic foundations have the lowest values for all boundary conditions. In addition, the minimum deflection values are obtained for the exponential volume fraction law model. The sandwich plate's non-dimensional deflection increases as the aspect ratio increases for all distribution models.