Research on the mechanical behaviour of functionally graded porous sandwich plates using a new C1 finite element procedure

This article develops a new C1 rectangular element based on Shi's third-order shear deformation plate theory (TSDT) for the static and dynamic analysis of functionally graded porous (FGP) sandwich plates. Although the plate theory is attractive, it cannot be exploited as expected in finite element analysis due to the difficulties associated with satisfying the zero shear stress boundary condition. In this work, the proposed element has four nodes with seven degrees of freedom (DOFs) per node. The performance of this element is confirmed by con-ducting various examples, showing its accuracy and range of applications. Then, some studies are performed to present the effects of input parameters on the static and dynamic response of FGP sandwich plates.