Neutral surface-based static and free vibration analysis of functionally graded porous plates

The functionally graded (FG) porous plates are usually characterized by the non-symmetric elastic modulus distribution through the thickness so that the plate neutral surface does not coincide with the mid-surface. Nevertheless, the conventional analysis models were mostly based on the plate mid-surface so that the accuracy of resulting numerical results is questionable. In this context, this paper presents the neutral surface-based static and free vibration analysis of FG porous plates and investigates the differences between the mid- and neutral surface-based analysis models. The neutral surface-based numerical method is formulated using the (3,3,2) hierarchical model and approximated by the last introduced natural element method (NEM). The volume fractions of metal and ceramic are expressed by the power-law function and the cosine-type porosity distributions are considered. The proposed numerical method is demonstrated through the benchmark experiment, and the differences between two analysis models are parametrically investigated with respect to the thickness-wise material and porosity distributions. It is found from the numerical results that the difference cannot be negligible when the material and porosity distributions are remarkably biased in the thickness direction.