Thermal bending analysis of functionally graded thick sandwich plates including stretching effect

The main objective of this research work is to present analytical solutions for the thermoelastic bending analysis of sandwich plates made of functionally graded materials with an arbitrary gradient. The governing equations of equilibrium are solved for a functionally graded sandwich plates under the effect of thermal loads. The transverse shear and normal strain and stress effects on thermoelastic bending of such sandwich plates are considered. Field equations for functionally graded sandwich plates whose deformations are governed by either the shear deformation theories or the classical theory are derived. Displacement functions that identically satisfy boundary conditions are used to reduce the governing equations to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients. The results of the shear deformation theories are compared together. Numerical results for deflections and stresses of functionally graded metal–ceramic plates are investigated.