Buckling and bending analyses of a novel functionally graded porous plate using Chebyshev-Ritz method

To address the interfacial failure problem while maintain the main advantageous features in layered sandwich structures, a novel functionally graded (FG) porous plate is proposed where the continuous gradient in material properties based on a graded porosity offers a smooth stress distribution along the plate thickness so that the remarkable stress mismatch that leads to interfacial failure in the conventional sandwich structures can be avoided. The FG porous plate is assumed to be made of closed-cell Aluminium foams with Young's modulus, shear modulus, mass density and Poisson's ratio varying across the thickness. The mechanical property of closed-cell solids is used to determine the relationship between porosity coefficient and mass density coefficient. Based on the first-order shear deformation plate theory, the governing equations are derived and then solved by employing Chebyshev polynomials based Ritz method. The uniaxial, biaxial and shear buckling loads, bending deflections and stresses are obtained for fully clamped and simply supported porous plates. Numerical results show that compared with the conventional layered sandwich plate with a uniform porous core, the proposed FG porosity can eliminate the stress mismatch and yield significantly improved buckling and bending performances, promoting the advance and application of porous structures in multiple engineering areas.