Thermo-elastoplastic characteristics of heat-resisting functionally graded composite structures

This paper is concerned with a study on thermo-elastoplastic characteristics of functionally<br />graded composite. Compared to the classical layered composites, it shows a wide range of thermo-elastoplastic<br />characteristics according to the choice of two major parameters, the thickness-wise volume<br />fraction of constituents and the relative thickness ratio of the graded layer. Therefore, by selecting an<br />appropriate combination of the two parameters, one is expected to design the most suitable heat-resisting<br />composite for a given thermal circumstance. Here, we address the parametric investigation on its characteristics together with theoretical study on thermo-elastoplasticity and numerical techniques for its finite<br />element approximations. Through the numerical experiments, we examine the influence of two parameters<br />on the thermo-elastoplastic characteristics.