Free vibration analysis of bidirectional functionally graded annular plates resting on elastic foundations using differential quadrature method

This paper deals with free vibration analysis of bidirectional functionally graded annular plates resting on a two-parameter elastic foundation. The formulations are based on the three-dimensional elasticity theory. This study presents a novel 2-D six-parameter power-law distribution for ceramic volume fraction of 2-D functionally graded materials that gives designers a powerful tool for flexible designing of structures under multi-functional requirements. Various material profiles along the thickness and in the in-plane directions are illustrated by using the 2-D power-law distribution. The effective material properties at a point are determined in terms of the local volume fractions and the material properties by the Mori-Tanaka scheme. The 2-D differential quadrature method as an efficient and accurate numerical tool is used to discretize the governing equations and to implement the boundary conditions. The fast rate of convergence of the method is shown and the results are compared against existing results in literature. Some new results for natural frequencies of the plates are prepared, which include the effects of elastic coefficients of foundation, boundary conditions, material and geometrical parameters. The interesting results indicate that a graded ceramic volume fraction in two directions has a higher capability to reduce the natural frequency than conventional 1-D functionally graded materials.