A REFINED AND SIMPLE SHEAR DEFORMATION THEORY FOR THERMAL BUCKLING OF SOLAR FUNCTIONALLY GRADED PLATES ON ELASTIC FOUNDATION

A refined and simple shear deformation theory for thermal buckling of solar functionally graded plate (SFGP) resting on two-parameter Pasternak's foundations is developed. The displacement field is chosen based on assumptions that the in-plane and transverse displacements consist of bending and shear components, and the shear components of in-plane displacements give rise to the parabolic variation of shear strain through the thickness in such a way that shear stresses vanish on the plate surfaces. Therefore, there is no need to use shear correction factor. The number of independent unknowns of present theory is four, as against five in other shear deformation theories. It is assumed that the material properties of the plate vary through the thickness of the plate as a power function. The neutral surface position for such plate is determined, and the present plate theory based on exact neutral surface position is employed to derive the governing stability equations. The nonlinear strain-displacement relations are also taken into consideration. The boundary conditions for the plate are assumed to be simply supported in all edges. Closed-form solutions are presented to calculate the critical buckling temperature, which are useful for engineers in design. The effects of the foundation parameters, plate dimensions, and power law index are presented comprehensively for the thermal buckling of solar functionally graded plates.