Free vibration analysis of thick CGFR annular sector plates resting on elastic foundations

This paper deals with free vibration analysis of continuous grading fiber reinforced (CGFR) and bi-directional FG annular sector plates on two-parameter elastic foundations under various boundary conditions, based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity. The plates with simply supported radial edges and arbitrary boundary conditions on their circular edges are considered. A semi-analytical approach composed of differential quadrature method (DQM) and series solution is adopted to solve the equations of motion. Some new results for the natural frequencies of the plate are prepared, which include the effects of elastic coefficients of foundation, boundary conditions, material and geometrical parameters. Results indicate that the non-dimensional natural frequency parameter of a functionally graded fiber volume fraction is larger than that of a discrete laminated and close to that of a 2-layer. It results that the CGFR plate attains natural frequency higher than those of traditional discretely laminated composite ones and this can be a benefit when higher stiffness of the plate is the goal and that is due to the reduction in spatial mismatch of material properties. Moreover, it is shown that a graded ceramic volume fraction in two directions has a higher capability to reduce the natural frequency than conventional one-dimensional functionally graded material. The multidirectional graded material can likely be designed according to the actual requirement and it is a potential alternative to the unidirectional functionally graded material. The new results can be used as benchmark solutions for future researches.