Dynamic Analysis of Elastically Supported Functionally Graded Sandwich Beams Resting on Elastic Foundations Under Moving Loads

Vibration behaviors of elastically supported functionally graded (FG) sandwich beams resting on elastic foundations under moving loads are investigated. The transformed-section method is first applied to establish the bending vibration equations of FG sandwich beams, then the Chebyshev collocation method is used to study free and forced vibrations. Two types of sandwich beams with FG faces-isotropic core and isotropic faces-FG core are considered. The material properties of FG materials are assumed to vary across the beam thickness according to a simple power function. Regarding the free vibration analysis, bending vibration frequencies are calculated numerically by forming a matrix eigenvalue equation. As for the forced vibration analysis, the backward differentiation formula method is employed to solve the time-dependent ordinary differential equations to obtain the dynamic deformations of the beam. To ensure the accuracy of the proposed model, some calculated results are compared with those in the published literature. Parametric studies are then performed to demonstrate the effects of material gradient indexes, stack types, layer thickness ratios, slenderness ratios, excitation frequency and speed of moving loads, and foundation and support stiffness parameters on the dynamic characteristics of FG sandwich beams.