Axisymmetric bending of a circular plate with stiff edge on a soft FGM layer

A circular plate with constant thickness, finite radius and stiff edge lying on an elastic halfspace is considered. The half-space consists of a soft functionally graded (FGM) layer with arbitrary varying elastic properties and a homogeneous elastic substrate. The plate bends under the action of arbitrary axisymmetric distributed load and response from the elastic half-space. A semi-analytical solution for the problem effective in whole range of geometric (relative layer thickness) and mechanical (elastic properties of coating and substrate, stiffness of the plate) properties is constructed using the bilateral asymptotic method (Aizikovich et al. 2009). Approximated analytical expressions for the contact stresses and deflections of the plate are provided. Numerical results showing the qualitative dependence of the solution from the initial parameters of the problem are obtained with high precision.