Nonlinear thermal bending of FGM cylindrical panels resting on elastic foundations under heat conduction.

Nonlinear thermal bending analysis is presented for a simply supported functionally graded cylindrical panel resting on an elastic foundation. Material properties of functionally graded materials (FGMs) are assumed to be temperature-dependent, and graded in the thickness direction based on Mori–Tanaka micromechanics model. The formulations are based on a higher order shear deformation shell theory with a von Kármán-type of kinematic nonlinearity and include shell panel-foundation interaction and the thermal effects. A two-step perturbation technique is employed to determine the thermal load–deflection and thermal load-bending moment curves induced by heat conduction. The numerical illustrations concern nonlinear thermal bending response of FGM cylindrical panels with two constituent materials resting on Pasternak elastic foundations from which results for Winkler elastic foundations are obtained as a limiting case. The effects of the volume fraction index, foundation stiffness, the panel geometric parameters as well as the character of in-plane boundary conditions are also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]