Three-Dimensional Transient Analysis of FGM Rectangular Sandwich Plate Subjected to Thermal Loading Using State Space Differential Quadrature Method

In this paper, transient response of functionally graded materials (FGM) rectangular sandwich plates subjected to thermal loading based on three-dimensional theory of elasticity is carried out. The facing layers are made of metal and ceramics whereas core layer is FGM with exponential function distribution. For the case of simply supported boundary conditions, obtained state space differential equations are solved analytically by using Fourier series expansions along the in-plane coordinates and Laplace transformation. For other edges, boundary condition semi-analytical method is used by applying differential quadrature method (DQM) along the in-plane direction and state space technique across the transverse coordinate. After carrying out the convergence of the present method, accuracy of this study is validated by comparing the numerical results with those reported in the literature. Finally, influences of the boundary conditions, length-to-thickness ratios, length-to-width ratios, time constant and the FGM graded index on elastic behavior of sandwich plate are examined.