Thermoelastic buckling response of thick functionally graded plates

The thermoelastic buckling behavior of a thick plate made of a functionally graded material is investigated in this paper by using an exponential shear deformation plate theory. A simple power law based on the rule of mixtures is used to estimate the effective material properties as functions of the plate thickness. The neutral surface position for such functionally graded plates is determined on the basis of the nonlinear strain-displacement relations. Uniform, linear, and nonlinear temperature distributions across the plate are considered. An analytical approach is presented to find the critical buckling temperature, which can be used in engineering calculations. A numerical solution of the problem with the use of an exponential dependence for shear strains is presented. The results obtained are compared with available data.