Free vibration analysis of FG plates under thermal environment via a simple 4-unknown HSDT

A 4-unknown shear deformation theory is applied to investigate the vibration of functionally graded plates under thermal environment. The plate is fabricated from a functionally graded material mixed of ceramic and metal with continuously varying material properties through the plate thickness. Three types of thermal loadings, uniform, linear and nonlinear temperature rises along the plate thickness are taken into account. The present theory contains four unknown functions as against five or more in other higher order shear deformation theories. The through-the-thickness distributions of transverse shear stresses of the plate are considered to vary parabolically and vanish at upper and lower surfaces. The present model does not require any problem dependent shear correction factor. Analytical solutions for the free vibration analysis are derived based on Fourier series that satisfy the boundary conditions (Navier's method). Benchmark solutions are firstly considered to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed model. Comparisons with the solutions available in literature revealed the good capabilities of the present model for the simulations of vibration responses of FG plates. Some parametric studies are carried out for the frequency analysis by varying the volume fraction profile and the temperature distribution across the plate thickness.