Post-buckling analysis of Timoshenko beams made of functionally graded material under thermal loading

This paper focuses on post-buckling analysis of functionally graded Timoshenko beam subjected to thermal loading by using the total Lagrangian Timoshenko beam element approximation. Material properties of the beam change in the thickness direction according to a power-law function. The beam is clamped at both ends. The considered highly non-linear problem is solved by using incremental displacement-based finite element method in conjunction with Newton-Raphson iteration method. As far as the authors know, there is no study on the post-buckling analysis of functionally graded Timoshenko beams under thermal loading considering full geometric non-linearity investigated by using finite element method. The convergence studies are made and the obtained results are compared with the published results. In the study, with the effects of material gradient property and thermal load, the relationships between deflections, end constraint forces, thermal buckling configuration and stress distributions through the thickness of the beams are illustrated in detail in post-buckling case.