A Study of Dynamic Instability for Sigmoid Functionally Graded Material Plates on Elastic Foundation

This article presents the dynamic instability response of sigmoid functionally graded material plates on elastic foundation using the higher-order shear deformation theory. The higher-order shear deformation theory has ability to capture the quadratic variation of shear strain and consequently shear stress through the plate thickness. The governing equations are then written in the form of Mathieu-Hill equations and then Bolotin`s method is employed to determine the instability regions. The boundaries of the instability regions are represented in the dynamic load and excitation frequency plane. The results of dynamic instability analysis of sigmoid functionally graded material plate are presented using the Navier`s procedure to illustrate the effect of elastic foundation parameter on dynamic response. The relations between Winkler and Pasternak elastic foundation parameter are discussed by numerical results. Also, the effects of static load factor, power-law index and side-to-thickness ratio on dynamic instability analysis are investigated and discussed. In order to validate the present solutions, the reference solutions are used and discussed. The theoretical development as well as numerical solutions presented herein should serve as reference for the dynamic instability study of S-FGM plates.