On Static Bending, Elastic Buckling and Free Vibration Analysis of Symmetric Functionally Graded Sandwich Beams

This article presents Navier type closed-form solutions for static bending, elastic buckling and free vibration analysis of symmetric functionally graded (FG) sandwich beams using a hyperbolic shear deformation theory. The beam has FG skins and isotropic core. Material properties of FG skins are varied through the thickness according to the power law distribution. The present theory accounts for a hyperbolic distribution of axial displacement whereas transverse displacement is constant through the thickness i.e effects of thickness stretching are neglected. The present theory gives hyperbolic cosine distribution of transverse shear stress through the thickness of the beam and satisfies zero traction boundary conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the beam. The equations of the motion are obtained by using the Hamilton’s principle. Closed-form solutions for static, buckling and vibration analysis of simply supported FG sandwich beams are obtained using Navier’s solution technique. The non-dimensional numerical results are obtained for various power law index and skin-core-skin thickness ratios. The present results are compared with previously published results and found in excellent agreement.