ABSTRACT
Post-buckling behaviors of ceramic-metal FGM plates are studied in different thermal field to understand the effects of asymmetric material and temperature distributions on the thermo-mechanical characteristics of FGM structures. The simple power law material distribution through the plate thickness is adopted. The effective properties of FGM is determined by the rule of mixture. The temperature field is considered to vary only with the thickness direction and determined by nonlinear Fourier equations of heat conduction. The geometric nonlinearity arises from the large deflection is introduced by von-Karman strain-displacement relations. The finite element equations are established using the three-node triangular Mindlin plate elements. The post-buckling equilibrium deflections are calculated by a reduced-order model, and the evolution of the equilibriums with the variation of the temperature is investigated. The post-buckling equilibriums are found asymmetric about the initial position of the plate, and the transverse deflection occurs no matter how small the temperature rise. Numerical results show that the FGM plate buckles to the metal-rich side if it is heated uniformly, while the FGM plate buckles to the ceramic-rich side (high temperature side) if it is heated non-uniformly. The effect of thermal gradient on the post-buckling deflection of FGM plate decreases with the increase of the material gradient index.
