• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.49-63
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• 2017

This paper presents an original hyperbolic (first present model) and parabolic (second present model) shear and normal deformation theory for the bending analysis to account for the effect of thickness stretching in functionally graded sandwich plates. Indeed, the number of unknown functions involved in these presents theories is only five, as opposed to six or even greater numbers in the case of other shear and normal deformation theories. The present theory accounts for both shear deformation and thickness stretching effects by a hyperbolic variation of ail displacements across the thickness and satisfies the stress-free boundary conditions on the upper and lower surfaces of the plate without requiring any shear correction factor. It is evident from the present analyses; the thickness stretching effect is more pronounced for thick plates and it needs to be taken into consideration in more physically realistic simulations. The numerical results are compared with 3D exact solution, quasi-3-dimensional solutions and with other higher-order shear deformation theories, and the superiority of the present theory can be noticed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.761-775
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• 2018

In the present work, the recently developed non-polynomial shear deformation theories are assessed for thermo-mechanical response characteristics of laminated composite plates. The applicability and accuracy of these theories for static, buckling and free vibration responses were ascertained in the recent past by several authors. However, the assessment of these theories for thermo-mechanical analysis of the laminated composite structures is still to be ascertained. The response characteristics are investigated in linear and non-linear thermal gradient and also in the presence and absence of mechanical transverse loads. The laminated composite plates are modelled using recently developed six shear deformation theories involving different shear strain functions. The principle of virtual work is used to develop the governing system of equations. The Navier type closed form solution is adopted to yield the exact solution of the developed equation for simply supported cross ply laminated plates. The thermo-mechanical response characteristics due to these six different theories are obtained and compared with the existing results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.157-171
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• 2019

In this research, the dynamic instability region (DIR) of the sandwich nano-beams are investigated based on nonlocal strain gradient elasticity theory (NSGET) and various higher order shear deformation beam theories (HSDBTs). The sandwich piezoelectric nano-beam is including a homogenous core and face-sheets reinforced with functionally graded (FG) carbon nanotubes (CNTs). In present study, three patterns of CNTs are employed in order to reinforce the top and bottom face-sheets of the beam. In addition, different higher-order shear deformation beam theories such as trigonometric shear deformation beam theory (TSDBT), exponential shear deformation beam theory (ESDBT), hyperbolic shear deformation beam theory (HSDBT), and Aydogdu shear deformation beam theory (ASDBT) are considered to extract the governing equations for different boundary conditions. The beam is subjected to thermal and electrical loads while is resting on Visco-Pasternak foundation. Hamilton principle is used to derive the governing equations of motion based on various shear deformation theories. In order to analysis of the dynamic instability behaviors, the linear governing equations of motion are solved using differential quadrature method (DQM). After verification with validated reference, comprehensive numerical results are presented to investigate the influence of important parameters such as various shear deformation theories, nonlocal parameter, strain gradient parameter, the volume fraction of the CNTs, various distributions of the CNTs, different boundary conditions, dimensionless geometric parameters, Visco-Pasternak foundation parameters, applied voltage and temperature change on the dynamic instability characteristics of sandwich piezoelectric nano-beam.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.5
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• pp.653-673
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• 2019

This work investigates a novel quasi-3D hyperbolic shear deformation theory is presented to discuss the buckling of new type of sandwich plates. This theory accounts for both shear deformation and thickness stretching effects by a hyperbolic variation of all displacements through the thickness. The enhancement of this formulation is due to the use of only five unknowns by including undetermined integral terms, contrary to other theories where we find six or more unknowns. It does not require shear correction factors and transverse shear stresses vary parabolically across the thickness. A new type of FGM sandwich plates, namely, both FGM face sheets and FGM hard core are considered. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived using the principle of virtual displacements. Analytical solutions are obtained for a simply supported plate. The accuracy of the present theory is verified by comparing the obtained results with quasi-3D solutions and those predicted by higher-order shear deformation theories. The comparison studies show that the obtained results are not only more accurate than those obtained by higher-order shear deformation theories, but also comparable with those predicted by quasi-3D theories with a greater number of unknowns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.835-854
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• 2015

In this paper, the modified form of shear deformation plate theories is proposed. First, the displacement field geometry of classical and the first order shear deformation theories are compared with each other. Using this comparison shows that there is a kinematic relation among independent variables of the first order shear deformation theory. So, the modified forms of rotation functions in shear deformation theories are proposed. Governing equations for rectangular and circular thick laminated plates, having been analyzed numerically so far, are solved by method of separation of variables. Natural frequencies and mode shapes of the plate are determined. The results of the present method are compared with those of previously published papers with good agreement obtained. Efficiency, simplicity and excellent results of this method are extensible to a wide range of similar problems. Accurate solution for governing equations of thick composite plates has been made possible for the first time.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.531-546
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• 2009

In the present analysis, the spline finite strip with higher-order shear deformation is formulated for the static analysis of piezoelectric composite plates. The proposed method incorporates Reddy's third-order shear deformation theory, Touratier's "Sine" model, Afaq's exponential model, Cho's higher-order zigzag laminate theory, as well as the classic plate theory and the first-order plate theory. Thus, the analysis can be conducted based on any of the above-mentioned theories. The selection of a specific method is done by simply changing a few terms in a 2 by 2 square matrix and the results, obtained according to different plate theories, can be compared to each other. Numerical examples are presented for piezoelectric composite plates subjected to mechanical loading. The results based on different shear deformation theories are compared with the three-dimensional solutions. The behaviours of piezoelectric composite plates with different length-to-thickness ratios, fibre orientations, and boundary conditions are also investigated in these examples.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.311-325
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• 2018

This article presents the bending analysis of FGM rectangular plates resting on non-uniform elastic foundations in thermal environment. Theoretical formulations are based on a recently developed refined shear deformation theory. The displacement field of the present theory is chosen based on nonlinear variations in the in-plane displacements through the thickness of the plate. The present theory satisfies the free transverse shear stress conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factor. Unlike the conventional trigonometric shear deformation theory, the present refined shear deformation theory contains only four unknowns as against five in case of other shear deformation theories. The material properties of the functionally graded plates are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness, according to a simple power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. The elastic foundation is modeled as non-uniform foundation. The results of the shear deformation theories are compared together. Numerical examples cover the effects of the gradient index, plate aspect ratio, side-to-thickness ratio and elastic foundation parameters on the thermo-mechanical behavior of functionally graded plates. 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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.2
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• pp.247-269
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• 2020

A finite strip formulation was developed for buckling and free vibration analysis of laminated composite plates based on different shear deformation plate theories. The different shear deformation theories such as Zigzag higher order, Refined Plate Theory (RPT) and other higher order plate theories by variation of transverse shear strains through plate thickness in the parabolic form, sine and exponential were adopted here. The two loaded opposite edges of the plate were assumed to be simply supported and remaining edges were assumed to have arbitrary boundary conditions. The polynomial shape functions are applied to assess the in-plane and out-of-plane deflection and rotation of the normal cross-section of plates in the transverse direction. The finite strip procedure based on the virtual work principle was applied to derive the stiffness, geometric and mass matrices. Numerical results were obtained based on various shear deformation plate theories to verify the proposed formulation. The effects of length to thickness ratios, modulus ratios, boundary conditions, the number of layers and fiber orientation of cross-ply and angle-ply laminates were determined. The additional results on the same effects in the interaction of biaxial in-plane loadings on the critical buckling load were determined as well.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.867-891
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• 2014

An equivalent single layer trigonometric shear deformation theory taking into account transverse shear deformation effect as well as transverse normal strain effect is presented for static flexure of cross-ply laminated composite and sandwich plates. The inplane displacement field uses sinusoidal function in terms of thickness coordinate to include the transverse shear deformation effect. The cosine function in thickness coordinate is used in transverse displacement to include the effect of transverse normal strain. The kinematics of the present theory is much richer than those of the other higher order shear deformation theories, because if the trigonometric term (involving thickness coordinate z) is expanded in power series, the kinematics of higher order theories (which are usually obtained by power series in thickness coordinate z) are implicitly taken into account to good deal of extent. Governing equations and boundary conditions of the theory are obtained using the principle of virtual work. The closed-form solutions of simply supported cross-ply laminated composite and sandwich plates have been obtained. The results of present theory are compared with those of the classical plate theory (CPT), first order shear deformation theory (FSDT), higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) of Reddy and exact three dimensional elasticity theory wherever applicable. The results predicted by present theory are in good agreement with those of higher order shear deformation theory and the elasticity theory.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.2
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• pp.175-187
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• 2020

The theories having been developed thus far account for higher-order variation of transverse shear strain through the depth of the beam and satisfy the stress-free boundary conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the beam. A shear correction factor, therefore, is not required. In this paper, the effect of surface on the axial buckling and free vibration of nanobeams is studied using various refined higher-order shear deformation beam theories. Furthermore, these theories have strong similarities with Euler-Bernoulli beam theory in aspects such as equations of motion, boundary conditions, and expressions of the resultant stress. The equations of motion and boundary conditions were derived from Hamilton's principle. The resultant system of ordinary differential equations was solved analytically. The effects of the nanobeam length-to-thickness ratio, thickness, and modes on the buckling and free vibration of the nanobeams were also investigated. Finally, it was found that the buckling and free vibration behavior of a nanobeam is size-dependent and that surface effects and surface energy produce significant effects by increasing the ratio of surface area to bulk at nano-scale. The results indicated that surface effects influence the buckling and free vibration performance of nanobeams and that increasing the length-to-thickness increases the buckling and free vibration in various higher-order shear deformation beam theories. This study can assist in measuring the mechanical properties of nanobeams accurately and designing nanobeam-based devices and systems.