A new higher-order shear and normal deformation theory for the buckling analysis of new type of FGM sandwich plates

This work investigates a novel quasi-3D hyperbolic shear deformation theory is presented to discuss the buckling of new type of sandwich plates. This theory accounts for both shear deformation and thickness stretching effects by a hyperbolic variation of all displacements through the thickness. The enhancement of this formulation is due to the use of only five unknowns by including undetermined integral terms, contrary to other theories where we find six or more unknowns. It does not require shear correction factors and transverse shear stresses vary parabolically across the thickness. A new type of FGM sandwich plates, namely, both FGM face sheets and FGM hard core are considered. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived using the principle of virtual displacements. Analytical solutions are obtained for a simply supported plate. The accuracy of the present theory is verified by comparing the obtained results with quasi-3D solutions and those predicted by higher-order shear deformation theories. The comparison studies show that the obtained results are not only more accurate than those obtained by higher-order shear deformation theories, but also comparable with those predicted by quasi-3D theories with a greater number of unknowns.