Vibration Characteristics of Functionally Graded Sandwich Plate with Cut outs under the Hygro thermal Environment

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the vibration characteristics of the sandwich functionally graded (SFGM) plate structures with circular and elliptical cut-outs subjected to elastic foundations under hygrothermal environments. The SFGM plates are made up of metal and ceramic materials, which are microscopically integrated to create a material with properties that vary continuously in a specific direction. These materials are commonly used in industries such as aerospace, defense, energy, nuclear science, space shuttle, biomedical, and automobile, where high strength and thermal resistance are required. Generalised governing equations for the SFGM plate are derived based on higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and effective material properties of each layer varied using a modified power-law distribution. Geometric discontinuities (Circular and elliptical cut-outs) and microstructural defects (Porosity defects and geometric imperfections) have been incorporated in the plate structures. The results are obtained using a C0 continuity isoparametric finite element method (FEM) with four-noded elements and seven degrees of freedom per node. The various examples are performed in the present study to investigate the influence of various factors such as circular and elliptical cutouts, porosity, geometric imperfection, elastic foundations, hygrothermal environments, and various boundary conditions on the structural response of SFGM plates. The current study also focused on the development of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for predicting the non-dimensional frequency parameter (NDFP) for SFGM plates with cut-outs. Obtained results are provided valuable insights into the vibrational behavior of SFGM plates and can be applied to improve the design and performance of SFGM plate structures.