Thermal Post-Buckling Analysis of Functionally Graded Composite Plates with Nonlinear Aerodynamic Forces
The post-buckling of the functionally graded composite plate under thermal environment with aerodynamic loading is studied. The structural model has three layers with ceramic, FGM and metal, respectively. The outer layers of the sandwich plate are different homogeneous and isotropic material properties for ceramic and metal. Whereas the core is FGM layer, material properties vary continuously from one interface to the other in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions. Governing equations are derived by using the principle of virtual work and numerical solutions are solved through a finite element method. The first-order shear deformation theory and von-Karman strain-displacement relations are based to derive governing equations of the plate. Aerodynamic effects are dealt by adopting nonlinear third-order piston theory for structural and aerodynamic nonlinearity. The Newton-Raphson iterative method applied for solving the nonlinear equations of the thermal post-buckling analysis