A 3-D Ritz solution for free vibration of circular/annular functionally graded plates integrated with piezoelectric layers

This paper addresses three-dimensional (3-D) free vibration characteristic of thick circular/annular functionally graded (FG) plates with surface-bonded piezoelectric layers on the basis of 3-D Ritz solution. Three displacement components along with electrical potential field of the plate are expressed by a set of Chebyshev polynomials multiplied by geometry boundary functions. Both open-circuit and closed-circuit surface conditions are taken into account. The mechanical properties of the FG plates are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness of the plate and obey either exponent or power law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. The effect of thickness-to-radius ratio, inner-to-outer radius ratio, piezo-to-host thickness ratio and gradient index on the natural frequencies of coupled piezoelectric FG circular/annular plates is investigated for different electrical and mechanical boundary conditions. It is observed that, unlike isotropic homogeneous circular/annular plates, frequency parameters of their piezoelectric coupled FG counterparts significantly increase with an enhancement in the host plate thickness to radius ratio. Results also show that the frequency parameters for open-circuit condition are higher than those for closed-circuit condition. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.