Thermomechanical postbuckling analysis of eccentrically stiffened FGM sandwich plates with general Sigmoid and power laws based on TSDT.

The buckling and postbuckling behaviors of eccentrically stiffened sandwich plates on elastic foundations subjected to in-plane compressive loads, thermal loads, or thermomechanical loads are presented analytically by using the Reddy’s third-order shear deformation plate theory with von Karman geometrical nonlinearity. Four cases of general Sigmoid and power laws are considered. The material properties of the facesheets, the core layer, and stiffeners are assumed to be temperature-dependent. Theoretical formulations based on the smeared stiffeners technique and third-order shear deformation plate theory are derived. The expressions of thermal parameters are found in the analytical form. Applying the Galerkin method, the expressions for determination of the critical buckling load and analysis of the postbuckling mechanical and thermal load–deflection curves are obtained. The iterative algorithm is presented for the case of temperature-dependent plate material properties. In addition, the influences of thermal element, functionally graded material stiffeners, the facesheet thickness to total thickness ratio, initial imperfection, and foundations are clarified in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]