An efficient and simple refined theory for buckling and free vibration of exponentially graded sandwich plates under various boundary conditions

In this paper, an efficient and simple refined shear deformation theory is presented for the vibration and buckling of exponentially graded material sandwich plate resting on elastic foundations under various boundary conditions. The displacement field of the present theory is chosen based on nonlinear variations in the in-plane displacements through the thickness of the plate. By dividing the transverse displacement into the bending and shear parts and making further assumptions, the number of unknowns and equations of motion of the present theory is reduced and hence makes them simple to use. Equations of motion are derived from Hamilton’s principle. Numerical results for the natural frequencies and critical buckling loads of several types of symmetric exponentially graded material sandwich plates are presented. The accuracy of the present theory is verified by comparing the obtained results with solutions available in the literature. Numerical results show that the present theory can archive accuracy comparable to the existing higher order shear deformation theories that contain more number of unknowns.