Three-dimensional exact solution for the free vibration of thick functionally graded annular sector plates with arbitrary boundary conditions

A new three-dimensional exact solution for the free vibrations of arbitrary thick functionally graded annular sector plates with arbitrary boundary conditions is presented. The three-dimensional elasticity theory is employed to formulate the theoretical model. According to a power law distribution of the volume of the constituents, the material properties change continuously through the thickness of the functionally graded annular sector plates. Each of displacements of the annular sector plates, regardless of boundary conditions, is expanded as a three-dimensional (3-D) Fourier cosine series supplemented with closed-form auxiliary functions introduced to eliminate all the relevant discontinuities with the displacements and its derivatives at the edges. Since the displacement fields are constructed adequately smooth throughout the entire solution domain, an exact solution is obtained based on the Ritz procedure by the energy functions of plate. The excellent accuracy and reliability of the current solutions are demonstrated by numerical examples and comparison of the present results with those available in the literature, and numerous new results for thick FG annular sector plates with elastic boundary conditions are presented. The effects of gradient indexes are also illustrated.