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This article considers a bidirectional functionally graded (BDFG) beam with various distributions of volume fraction. The impact of these distributions on the buckling and bending response of BDFG beam with general boundary conditions is investigated via a quasi-3D solution. It is assumed that the beam is exposed to a set of in-plane varying compressive loads and there mechanical characteristics change in both directions. Also, the BDFG beam is considered to be exposed different external mechanical loads. Hamilton's principle is employed to derive the governing equations, which are then solved using analytical solution to obtain buckling and bending characteristics. The precision of the current formulation is investigated via a comparison with available data in literature. Some numerical results are presented and discussed to assess the effect of different parameters such type of volume fraction, boundary condition, varying load, and beam geometry on the buckling and bending of BDFG beam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fragility and the presence of a poisonous substance (lead) are the two major issues with traditional piezoceramics and structures that include them. This work suggests an active structure that is lightweight, flexible, and eco-friendly such that a polymeric foam plate is sandwiched between two piezoelectrically activated nanocomposite layers. A combination of a polymer and piezoelectric nanowires (NWs) of zinc oxide (ZnO) is used in the nanocomposite layers. For the proposed active structure, two types of void distributions and functionally graded (FG) distributions of the NWs have been assumed in each corresponding layer. The buckling characterization of the proposed eco-friendly active sandwich plate (EFASP) under biaxial mechanical loads has been conducted using an extended meshless solution based on a third-order theory. An in-depth parametric study on the EFASPs' biaxial buckling resistance revealed that increasing NW content considerably enhances buckling resistance, with this enhancement strongly reliant on the distribution profile of the NWs. Moreover, it was observed that embedding voids in the substrate layer can lead to a large structural weight reduction while only marginally lowering the buckling performance of suggested EFASPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]