Static and dynamic analyses of cracked functionally graded structural components: A review

Performances of conventional fiber reinforced composites are challenged in thermomechanical loading, when development of interlaminar stresses at the interface becomes the weakest link of the components. Development of functionally graded materials (FGMs) could lead to the reduction of such interlaminar failures, especially at high temperature applications. Therefore, these FGMs have a huge potential for use in many structural applications, particularly under thermomechanical loading. There has been a large number of works already reported on FGM components, starting from manufacturing to stress analysis of such components. Cracks in such FGM components may develop due to variety of reasons during service and need to be addressed while analyzing the performances of such components. This paper reviews the progress made till date on the analysis of structural components made of FGMs with a special emphasis on the analysis of cracked FGM components. In view of the potential use of components made of FGMs in a wide range of applications, it is important to understand the state of the art in this area. This paper thus provides a critical review of works reported in this area with an objective of providing the key challenges and future scopes of development in the direction of analysis of such structure for assessing safety in the presence of cracks.