Bending and free vibration analysis of FG sandwich beams using higher-order zigzag theory

In present work, bending and free vibration studies are carried out on different kinds of sandwich FGM beams using recently proposed (Chakrabarty et al. 2011) C-0 finite element (FE) based higher-order zigzag theory (HOZT). The material gradation is assumed along the thickness direction of the beam. Power-law, exponential-law, and sigmoidal laws (Garg et al 2021c) are used during the present study. Virtual work principle is used for bending solutions and Hamilton's principle is applied for carrying out free vibration analysis as done by Chalak et al. 2014. Stress distribution across the thickness of the beam is also studied in detail. It is observed that the behavior of an unsymmetric beam is different from what is exhibited by a symmetric one. Several new results are also reported which will be useful in future studies.