Natural frequencies of sandwich plates with FGM core via

variable-kinematic 2-D Ritz models

Lorenzo Dozio
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, via La Masa, 34, 20156, Milano, Italy
Abstract
This paper deals with the formulation of advanced two-dimensional Ritz-based models for accurate prediction
of natural frequencies of thin and thick sandwich plates with core made of functionally graded material
(FGM). The formulation is rather general due to its invariant properties with respect to the underlying
plate kinematic theory and the admissible set of Ritz functions. Convergence and accuracy of the method
are investigated in this work using an entire family of higher-order layerwise and equivalent single-layer
theories, whose corresponding displacement variables are approximated by series of Chebyshev polynomials
multiplied by appropriate boundary functions. Results are presented for rectangular sandwich FGM plates
with various thickness-to-length ratios and combinations of clamped, free and simply-supported edges.
Keywords: Free vibration, Sandwich FGM plates, Variable kinematic Ritz method, Higher-order plate
theories, Layerwise plate theories
1. Introduction
Functionally graded materials (FGM) are a relatively new generation of materials made up of two or more
constituent phases with a smoothly varying composition obtained by gradually changing the volume fraction
of the constituents materials. They exhibit improved thermal-resistant properties compared to conventional
composites, which make them attractive in many potential applications such as barrier coatings, engine
components and airframe of space planes.
Due to their outstanding exural stiness-to-weight ratio compared to other structural constructions,
sandwich structures are widely used in many engineering elds. A typical sandwich architecture consists of
two thin and sti facesheets embedding a thick and soft core. The main drawback of sandwich constructions
is the presence of strong stress discontinuity at the facesheet-core interface which may introduce severe
delamination-related problems. The use of a functionally graded core can lead to a signicant mitigation of
interfacial stress intensity.
Email address: lorenzo.dozio@polimi.it (Lorenzo Dozio)
Preprint submitted to Composite Structures July 25, 2012
The mechanical behavior of plates made up of one FGM layer has been extensively studied in many papers
appeared in recent years. By restricting the present review to dynamic studies, the rst works on vibration
of FGM two-dimensional structures were reported by Reddy and co-workers [1, 2] more than one decade
ago. Cheng and Batra [3] used Reddys third-order shear deformation theory (TSDT) to study steady state
vibrations of a simply supported FGM isotropic polygonal plate resting on elastic foundation and subjected
to uniform in-plane hydrostatic loads. Vel and Batra [4] have proposed an exact three-dimensional solution
for free and forced vibrations of rectangular simply-supported FGM plates. Valuable benchmark results are
provided for metal-ceramic functionally graded plates where a power-law through-the-thickness variation of
the volume fractions of the constituents was used along with the adoption of the Mori-Tanaka and the self-
consistent schemes to estimate locally the eective material properties. Immediately afterwards, dynamic
deformations of thick FGM plates were investigated by Qian et al. [5] using a higher-order shear and normal
deformable plate theory and the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method. Natural frequencies computed with
a fth-order compatible kinematic model are found to match very well with the corresponding analytical 3-D
values presented in [4] even for very thick plates. FGM anisotropic plates with various boundary conditions
were also studied by Batra and Jin [6] using the rst-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and the nite
element method. More recently, Ferreira and co-workers [7, 8] presented a meshless method based on radial
basis functions for solving the free vibration problem of functionally graded plates. Results for various
materials and several boundary conditions are reported on the basis of FSDT, TSDT and a more rened
plate kinematic theory involving two additional higher-order rotational terms. In the same period, some
works appeared in the literature on vibration of circular and annular functionally graded plates [9, 10, 11].
Matsunaga [12] carried out an extensive dynamic and stability analysis of FGM plates with simply supported
edges using several sets of 2-D advanced approximate theories. It is found that a high-order deformation
theory is capable of predicting accurately both the natural frequencies and buckling stresses and the through-
the-thickness distribution of displacement and stress components. A novel mesh-free method was developed
and applied to functionally graded plates by Zhao et al. [13]. The formulation and results are presented using
the FSDT to take into account the transverse shear deformation. The inuence of boundary conditions,
volume fraction exponent and length-to-thickness ratio on the frequency characteristics are examined in
detail. In the last three years, the number of studies on vibration behavior of FGM plates increased a lot.
Novel analytical and numerical methods combined with traditional and advanced kinematic theories are
applied to functionally graded plates involving complicating eects (see, e.g., [14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21]).
Contrary to single-layer FGM plates, the literature on free vibration of multilayered structures with
graded layers is relatively scarce. Zenkour [22] studied the buckling and free vibration of simply-supported
sandwich plates with FGM facesheets. Analytical solutions are provided on the basis of a sinusoidal shear
deformation plate theory. Free vibration studies on functionally graded, anisotropic and linear magneto-
electro-elastic plates have been carried out by Bhangale and Ganesan [23] using a semi-analytical nite
2
element method. Li et al. [24] presented a valuable three-dimensional Ritz analysis of sandwich plates of
two types: plates with FGM facesheets and homogeneous core and plates with homogeneous facesheets
embedding a FGM core. Accurate approximate vibration solutions are obtained using the Ritz method by
expanding the three plate displacements through series of Chebyshev polynomials multiplied by appropriate
boundary functions. A four-variable shear deformation theory has been applied to simply-supported FGM
rectangular sandwich plates in [25, 26]. Cinefra and Soave [27] presented closed-form solutions of free
vibration problems in simply-supported multilayered plates made of functionally graded materials. Within
the framework of the unied formulation proposed by Carrera [28], various higher-order equivalent single-
layer (ESL) and layerwise (LW) kinematic models are adopted and compared. It is found that rened
theories of high order are needed to provide an adequate accuracy for thick plates, especially when high
wavenumbers are of interest. Finally, a comprehensive static, dynamic and stability analysis of isotropic and
sandwich FGM plates has been carried out recently by Neves et al. [29] using a quasi-3D higher-order shear
deformation theory which accounts for extensibility in the thickness direction. The governing equations are
solved by a meshless method based on radial basis functions. Several numerical examples are provided for
thin and thick plates with FGM skins or FGM core, although vibration results are shown only for simply-
supported boundary conditions. It is found that thickness stretching plays a signicant role in functionally
graded plates even for relatively low thickness-to-length ratios.
The aim of this work is to present a powerful and versatile modeling technique capable of providing
accurate natural frequencies of thin and thick sandwich plates with FGM layers and an arbitrary combination
of clamped, free and simply-supported boundary conditions. In particular, the numerical investigation is
focused on rectangular plates with homogeneous skins and FGM core. The modulus of elasticity and mass
density of the core are assumed to vary according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume
fractions of the constituents. The present method relies on the proper combination of the classical Ritz
method and the Carreras unied formulation (CUF) [30], which allows handling in an easy way arbitrary
renements of traditional lamination theories. The good spectral convergence and accuracy of a global Ritz
approach along with the invariant properties of CUF with respect to the specic kinematic model make
the present formulation attractive to provide systematic assessment of a large number of two-dimensional
plate theories and ecient to be adopted during preliminary design studies and parametric analysis without
giving up much accuracy. The work can be considered as an extension of the variable-kinematic Ritz method
presented in [31] and [32], which were limited to isotropic and laminated composite plates, respectively.
According to CUF framework and nomenclature, so-called Ritz fundamental stiness and mass nuclei for
FGM plates are derived at a layer level. They are invariant with respect to both the plate theory assumed to
describe the plate mechanical behavior and the admissible set of Ritz trial functions. In this work, products
of Chebyshev polynomials and boundary-compliant functions are chosen due to their good convergence
and stability properties [32]. After studying the convergence of the approach, its accuracy is evaluated
3
by comparison with reference results available in the literature for simply-supported and clamped FGM
sandwich plates. Some accurate upper-bound frequency solutions for other boundary conditions are also
provided.
2. Mathematical formulation
Consider a at rectangular plate of side lengths a and b, total thickness h and arbitrary boundary
conditions (see Figure 1). The plate consists of N
l
layers, which can be made of homogeneous or functionally
graded material. The kth layer has thickness h
k
and is located between z = z
k
and z = z
k+1
in the thickness
direction. A four-letter compact symbolic notation is used for describing simply supported (S), clamped (C)
and free (F) boundary conditions, numbered in a counterclockwise direction beginning from edge DA (see
Figure 1). For the sake of convenience, the following dimensionless coordinates are introduced:
=
2
a
x 1 (1)
=
2
b
y 1 (2)
2.1. Constitutive equations and material properties
The constitutive equations of a generic layer k with through-the-thickness variation of material properties
can be written as

k
p
(, , z) = C
k
pp
(z)
k
p
(, , z) +C
k
pn
(z)
k
n
(, , z)

k
n
(, , z) = C
k
pn
T
(z)
k
p
(, , z) +C
k
nn
(z)
k
n
(, , z)
(3)
where the stress vector
k
and the strain vector
k
are split into in-plane and out-of-plane (normal) com-
ponents, respectively,

k
p
=
_

_
,
k
n
=
_

k
z

k
z

k
zz
_

_
,
k
p
=
_

_
,
k
n
=
_

k
z

k
z

k
zz
_

_
(4)
The matrix of stiness coecients follows a similar partition:
C
k
pp
=
_

_
C
k
11
C
k
12
0
C
k
12
C
k
22
0
0 0 C
k
66
_

_
, C
k
pn
=
_

_
0 0 C
k
13
0 0 C
k
23
0 0 0
_

_
, C
k
nn
=
_

_
C
k
55
0 0
0 C
k
44
0
0 0 C
k
33
_

_
(5)
where
C
k
11
(z) = C
k
22
(z) = C
k
33
(z) =
E
k
(z)
_
1
k
(z)

[1 +
k
(z)] [1 2
k
(z)]
C
k
12
(z) = C
k
13
(z) = C
k
23
(z) =
E
k
(z)
k
(z)
[1 +
k
(z)] [1 2
k
(z)]
C
k
44
(z) = C
k
55
(z) = C
k
66
(z) =
E
k
(z)
2 [1 +
k
(z)]
(6)
4
in which E
k
is the Youngs modulus and
k
is the Poissons ratio of layer k.
In the case of homogeneous layers, the elastic properties are constant along the thickness direction. In
the case of layers made of functionally graded material, E
k
and
k
are computed in this study according to
the law-of-mixtures as
E
k
(z) = E
k
bot
+
_
E
k
top
E
k
bot
_
V
k
f
(z)

k
(z) =
k
bot
+
_

k
top

k
bot
_
V
k
f
(z)
(7)
where P
k
bot
and P
k
top
denote the material property P of the bottom and top surface of layer k, respectively,
and V
f
(z) is the volume fraction of layer k. The volume fraction prole through the thickness is assumed
to obey a power-law function
V
k
f
(z) =
_
z z
k
z
k+1
z
k
_

(8)
where the exponent is the volume fraction index indicating the material variation along z [z
k
, z
k+1
].
2.2. A class of layerwise 2-D theories
Using a summation convention over repeated indices, the harmonic displacement vector for each layer
u
k
is expressed as follows:
u
k
=
_

_
F

() u
k

(, )
F

() v
k

(, )
F

() w
k

(, )
_

_
e
jt
= F

() u
k

(, )e
jt
(9)
in which = t, b, r (r = 2, . . . , N) is the theory-related index, F

() are assumed thickness functions, is

the local dimensionless layer coordinate (1 1), is the circular frequency, and N 1 is the order
of the theory. In order to satisfy the interlaminar continuity of the displacements, the thickness functions
F

() are selected as follows

F
t
() =
1 +
2
; F
b
() =
1
2
; F
r
() = P
r
() P
r2
() r = 2, 3, . . . , N (10)
where P
i
() is the Legendre polynomial of ith order. In so doing, the displacement variables u
k
b
and u
k
t
are the actual values at the bottom (b) and top (t) surfaces of layer k, respectively, and the interlaminar
continuity can be easily imposed as u
k
t
= u
k+1
b
(k = 1, 2, . . . , N
l
1).
The formulation of Eq. (9) in conjunction with the set dened by Eqs. (10) leads to an entire family of
layerwise plate theories parametrized by the order N. According to CUF nomenclature, they will be shortly
indicated here by LDN. The number of displacement degrees of freedom for a given LDN theory depends
upon the number of constitutive layers and is given by 3(N + 1)N
l
3(N
l
1).
5
2.3. Strain-displacement relations
According to the outlined framework, the in-plane and out-of-plane strain components can be written in
the following form

k
p
= F

D
p
u
k

e
jt
(11)

k
n
= F

D
n
u
k

e
jt
+ F

u
k

e
jt
(12)
where
D
p
=
_

_
2
a

0 0
0
2
b

0
2
b

2
a

0
_

_
, D
n
=
_

_
0 0
2
a

0 0
2
b

0 0 0
_

_
(13)
and F

denotes dierentiation of F

with respect to the thickness coordinate.

2.4. Maximum potential and kinetic energy
Using Eqs. (3), (9), (11) and (12), the maximum potential energy U
max
and the maximum kinetic energy
T
max
of the plate vibrating harmonically can be expressed, respectively, as
U
max
=
1
2
N
l

k=1
__
+1
1
_
_
D
p
u
k

_
T
_
Z
k
spp
D
p
u
k
s
+Z
k
spn
D
n
u
k
s
+Z
k
spn
u
k
s
_
+
_
D
n
u
k

_
T
_
Z
k
snp
D
p
u
k
s
+Z
k
snn
D
n
u
k
s
+Z
k
snn
u
k
s
_
+ u
k

T
_
Z
k
snp
D
p
u
k
s
+Z
k
snn
D
n
u
k
s
+Z
k
snn
u
k
s
_
_
ab
4
dd
(14)
and
T
max
=
1
2

2
N
l

k=1
__
+1
1
Z
k
s
u
k

T
u
k
s
ab
4
dd (15)
where the following integrals over the layer thickness h
k
are introduced:
Z
k
spp
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
pp
dz Z
k
spn
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
pn
dz
Z
k
snp
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
np
dz Z
k
snn
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
nn
dz
Z
k
spn
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
pn
dz Z
k
snn
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
nn
dz
Z
k
snp
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
np
dz Z
k
snn
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
nn
dz
Z
k
snn
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
nn
dz Z
k
s
=
_
h
k
F

F
s

k
dz
and
k
=
k
(z) is the mass density of layer k. Using the same law-of-mixtures adopted for the Youngs
modulus and Poissons ratio, the mass density is assumed to have the following variation through the
thickness

k
(z) =
k
bot
+
_

k
top

k
bot
_
V
k
f
(z) (16)
6
where
k
bot
and
k
top
denote the mass density of the bottom and top surface of layer k, respectively, and
V
f
(z) is the volume fraction given by Eq. (8).
2.5. Ritz expansion
According to the standard Ritz approach, the components of each displacement unknown u
k

(, ) are
expanded through series of admissible functions as follows
u
k

(, ) = N
i
(, )c
k
i
(i = 1, 2, . . . , M) (17)
in which
N
i
(, ) = diag (N
ui
, N
vi
, N
wi
) , c
k
i
=
_

_
c
k
ui
c
k
vi
c
k
wi
_

_
(18)
where M is the order of the Ritz expansion, c
k
ui
, c
k
vi
and c
k
wi
are unknown coecients, N
ui
(, ), N
vi
(, )
and N
wi
(, ) are the corresponding geometrically-compliant layer-independent trial functions, and i is the
Ritz-related index. Note that the summation convention over the repeated Ritz-related index i is implied
in Eq. (17). The i-th admissible function N
i
( = u, v, w) is selected here as
N
i
(, ) = f

()p
m
()g

()p
n
() (m, n = 1, 2, . . . , P) (19)
where f() and g() are boundary functions corresponding to the type of boundary conditions along and ,
respectively, p
l
() = cos [(l 1) arccos()] (l = m, n; = , ) is the one-dimensional Chebyshev polynomial
along direction, and P is the order of expansion in each direction. Note that the order M of the Ritz
expansion is given by M = P
2
and the indices i, m, and n are related by the expression i = P(m1) + n.
For further details on the Ritz admissible set, also see [32].
2.6. Ritz fundamental nuclei
After substituting Eq. (17) into Eqs. (14) and (15), the potential and kinetic energy of the plate can be
written as a summation of layer contributions as follows:
U
max
=
1
2
N
l

k=1
c
k
i
T
K
k
sij
c
k
sj
(20)
T
max
=
1
2

2
N
l

k=1
c
k
i
T
M
k
sij
c
k
sj
(21)
where K
k
sij
and M
k
sij
are 33 matrices representing the Ritz fundamental nuclei of the formulation. After
indicating the in-plane integrals as follows
I
ij
mm
=
_
+1
1
d
i
d
i
[f

()p
m
()]
d
j
d
j
[f
s
()p
m
()] d m, m = 1, 2, . . . , P
7
J
ij
nn
=
_
+1
1
d
i
d
i
[g

()p
n
()]
d
j
d
j
[g
s
()p
n
()] d n, n = 1, 2, . . . , P
and the thickness integrals as follows
Z
k
sij
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
ij
dz Z
k
sij
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
ij
dz
Z
k
sij
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
ij
dz Z
k
sij
=
_
h
k
F

F
s
C
k
ij
dz
the nine terms of the Ritz stiness nucleus can be explicitly written as
K
k
sij
(1, 1) = Z
k
s11
b
a
I
11
umum
J
00
unun
+ Z
k
s66
a
b
I
00
umum
J
11
unun
+ Z
k
s55
ab
4
I
00
umum
J
00
unun
K
k
sij
(1, 2) = Z
k
s12
I
10
umvm
J
01
unvn
+ Z
k
s66
I
01
umvm
J
10
unvn
K
k
sij
(1, 3) = Z
k
s13
b
2
I
10
umwm
J
00
unwn
+ Z
k
s55
b
2
I
01
umwm
J
00
unwn
K
k
sij
(2, 1) = Z
k
s12
I
01
vmum
J
10
vnun
+ Z
k
s66
I
10
vmum
J
01
vnun
K
k
sij
(2, 2) = Z
k
s66
b
a
I
11
vmvm
J
00
vnvn
+ Z
k
s22
a
b
I
00
vmvm
J
11
vnvn
+ Z
k
s44
ab
4
I
00
vmvm
J
00
vnvn
K
k
sij
(2, 3) = Z
k
s23
a
2
I
00
vmwm
J
10
vnwn
+ Z
k
s44
a
2
I
00
vmwm
J
01
vnwn
K
k
sij
(3, 1) = Z
k
s55
b
2
I
10
wmum
J
00
wnun
+ Z
k
s13
b
2
I
01
wmum
J
00
wnun
K
k
sij
(3, 2) = Z
k
s44
a
2
I
00
wmvm
J
10
wnvn
+ Z
k
s23
a
2
I
00
wmvm
J
01
wnvn
K
k
sij
(3, 3) = Z
k
s55
b
a
I
11
wmwm
J
00
wnwn
+ Z
k
s44
a
b
I
00
wmwm
J
11
wnwn
+ Z
k
s33
ab
4
I
00
wmwm
J
00
wnwn
(22)
The explicit expression of the non-null terms of the Ritz mass nucleus are given below:
M
k
sij
(1, 1) = Z
k
s
ab
4
I
00
umum
J
00
unun
M
k
sij
(2, 2) = Z
k
s
ab
4
I
00
vmvm
J
00
vnvn
M
k
sij
(3, 3) = Z
k
s
ab
4
I
00
wmwm
J
00
wnwn
(23)
2.7. The eigenvalue problem
Once computed Eq. (22) and (23) by evaluating both the in-plane and thickness integrals by Gauss
quadrature, the fundamental nuclei are expanded at a layer level through variation of the theory-related
indices and s. Resulting layer-level matrices K
k
ij
and M
k
ij
are then assembled from layer to multilayer
level by enforcing the interlaminar continuity condition [32]. Finally, the plate stiness and mass matrices
K and M are obtained by expanding the multilayer matrices through variation of the Ritz-related indices i
and j, following the same procedure used for the nuclei-to-layer expansion. Square matrices K and M have
dimension [3(N + 1)N
l
3(N
l
1)]M for a given LDN theory and a M-term Ritz expansion.
By minimizing the energy functional = U
max
T
max
with respect to the vector of coecients c
k
i
, a
standard generalized eigenvalue problem is obtained:
_
K
2
M

c = 0 (24)
8
where c is the vector collecting the unknown Ritz coecients c
k
sj
.
2.8. Specialization for a class of ESL 2-D theories
In the case of shear and normal deformation ESL theories, since the displacement unknowns are the same
for each layer, the superscript k in Eq. (9) is dropped and global thickness functions F

(z) are adopted. In

this work, the z expansion is implemented via Taylor polynomials as follows
u
k
= z

(, )e
jt
(25)
in which = 0, . . . , N is the theory-related index. Related ESL theories will be shortly denoted by the
acronym EDN, where N denotes the order of the kinematic model [31]. The total number of displacement
variables of a EDN theory is independent of the number of layers and is given by 3(N + 1).
Dierently from the layerwise case, multilayer matrices of EDN models are obtained by simply summing
up the layer-level matrices K
k
ij
and M
k
ij
over the number of thickness layers [32]. The nal plate square
matrices of dimensions 3M(N + 1) are obtained by varying the Ritz-related indices i and j from 1 to M in
the same way as the corresponding layerwise-based matrices.
3. Numerical analysis
3.1. Convergence properties
It is well known that the Ritz method based on a mathematically complete set of admissible functions
such as in Eq. (17) can provide arbitrarily accurate solutions as the number of terms M in the expansion
approaches innity. Since the series is truncated to a nite value in practical computations, the accuracy of
the Ritz solution for a given problem is related to the rate of convergence associated with the selection of
trial functions. Therefore, it is important to study the convergence properties of the present approach.
The convergence analysis is carried out on a plate reference example. Similar behavior, not shown here for
brevity, is observed in other cases. A square sandwich plate with two homogeneous skins of equal thickness
0.1h embedding a FGM core of thickness 0.8h is considered (see Figure 2). The bottom skin is made up of
alumina (Al
2
O
3
) with the following material properties: E
C
= 380 GPa,
C
= 3800 kg/m
3
,
C
= 0.3. The
top skin is made up of aluminum (Al) with E
M
= 70 GPa,
M
= 2707 kg/m
3
, and
M
= 0.3. Therefore, the
core is ceramic-rich at the bottom face and metal-rich at the top face.
Table 1 presents the rst ve non-dimensional frequency parameters =
_
b
2
/h
_ _

0
/E
0
, with
0
= 1
kg/m
3
and E
0
= 1 GPa, for a simply-supported (SSSS) plate having thickness-to-length ratio h/b = 0.01
and volume fraction index value = 1. Results are computed for increasing values of order P used in the
Ritz expansion along each in-plane direction when a third-order equivalent single-layer (ED3) and layerwise
(LD3) theory are assumed for the kinematics description of the plate mechanical behavior. It is conrmed
9
that, as any Ritz-based frequency solution, convergence of the method is monotonic form above, i.e., the
approximate eigenvalue calculated with a P + 1-term series is always lower, or at least not higher, than
the corresponding eigenvalue calculated with a P-term series. The rate of convergence is very similar for
ED3 and LD3 theories and is relatively high. Indeed, all the rst ve frequency parameters converged to
ve-digit upper bound values when P = 10. Note also that Ritz solutions corresponding to the advanced
layerwise model are only slightly dierent compared to results arising from the ESL kinematic model. This
is related to the thinness of the plate.
The same sandwich FGM plate with thickness-to-length ratio h/b = 0.2 and volume fraction exponent
= 10 is considered in Table 2. Now, frequency parameters are reported for all edges simply-supported
(SSSS) and all edges clamped (CCCC). Referring rst to the SSSS case, it is observed that the convergence
rate is even slightly faster than for the previous thin plate example and is not aected by the through-the-
thickness volume fraction prole. Note also that results computed using the same Ritz order P are found
to be dierent to a small degree according to the adopted kinematic theory. This is also true for the fully-
clamped case. As shown later, the accuracy of upper-bound frequency solutions of thick plates is sensitive
to the plate theory, in particular when higher frequency modes are of interest. As a nal remark, it should
be noted that the rate of convergence of the method deteriorates when clamped boundary conditions are
considered. It appears that the reason for such behavior should be associated with the high displacement
gradients of the mode shapes near the plate edges and the related diculty in their approximation using
global Ritz functions of relatively low order [31, 32].
3.2. Validation on SSSS and CCCC plates
The variable-kinematic Ritz formulation derived in this work for sandwich plates with FGM layers is here
validated by comparison with three case studies available in the literature. In all the following examples,
present results are computed using a Ritz series with P = 10 terms along and directions.
First, a single-layer FGM plate with simply-supported edges is considered. The geometric properties are
a = b = 0.4 m, h = 0.005 m. The constituent materials of the plate are Titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V and
Aluminum oxide with the following material properties:
Titanium alloy (Ti 6Al 4V) : E
M
= 105.7 GPa,
M
= 4429 kg/m
3
,
M
= 0.298
Aluminum oxide : E
C
= 320.2 GPa,
C
= 3750 kg/m
3
,
C
= 0.26
Two values of the volume fraction exponent of the metal-ceramic graded plate are considered. Table 3
shows a comparison of the rst ten natural frequencies derived using the approach proposed here with
those reported by Zhao et al. [13] and He et al. [33]. The present solutions are based on ED2 and ED4
equivalent single-layer theories. It can be seen that the vibration frequencies are in good agreement with
results presented by Zhao et al. [13], expect for the two highest modes where little discrepancy is observed.
Good correlation is also obtained with solutions showed by He et al. [33].
10
As a second example, the square sandwich plate with Al
2
O
3
/Al graded core previously introduced
in the convergence analysis is considered. Thin (h/b = 0.01), moderately thick (h/b = 0.1) and thick
(h/b = 0.2) plates with fully simply-supported and fully clamped edges are now analyzed. The fundamental
non-dimensional frequency parameter =
_
b
2
/h
_ _

0
/E
0
, with
0
= 1 kg/m
3
and E
0
= 1 GPa, is shown
in Table 4 for values of the volume fraction index = 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10. Present results are reported using ED2
and LD3 theories and compared with frequency solutions obtained by a three-dimensional Ritz approach
in [24]. It is observed that upper-bound frequency parameters computed using 2-D theories are all in excellent
agreement with 3-D values for thin plates. The accuracy is slightly worse for moderately thick plates when
the second-order ESL theory is adopted. When thicker plates are studied, the discrepancy between 2-D
approximations and three-dimensional analysis can be limited to a small degree only using a layerwise
model. Note also that the above conclusions are found to be valid irrespective of the through-the-thickness
power-law variation of the material properties and the boundary conditions.
The last validation example refers to a square thick (h/b = 0.25) sandwich plate having two homogeneous
skins of equal thickness 0.1h embedding an Al/Al
2
O
3
graded core of thickness 0.8h. In this case, the top
skin is made of ceramic material and the bottom skin is made of aluminum. The plate is considered to
be simply-supported. The rst ve non-dimensional frequencies =
_
b
2
/h
_ _

0
/E
0
corresponding to the
fundamental vibration mode with one half wavelength along each in-plane direction are shown in Table 5.
Ritz-based solutions for = 5, 10 are listed using ED4, LD3 and LD4 theories and compared with analytical
solutions computed by Cinefra and Soave [27] using the classical lamination theory (CLT), the rst-order
shear deformation theory (FSDT) and a fourth-order layerwise theory. Since CLT relies on three kinematic
variables, only three corresponding natural frequencies are obtained. It is shown that approximate values
derived using the present approach are in excellent agreement with the analytical solutions. It is also
observed that accurate estimation of higher-order modes of thick plates requires the adoption of rened
kinematic models.
3.3. Results with other boundary conditions
To the best authors knowledge, accurate frequency parameters for FGM sandwich plates with boundary
conditions other than fully simply-supported and fully clamped are not available in the literature. Based
on the convergence analysis and validation study presented before, some illustrative numerical results are
given for rectangular plates (a/b = 2) with homogeneous skins of thickness 0.1h and Al/Al
2
O
3
graded
core. Tabulated values are computed using a fourth-order layerwise theory (LD4) and thus are considered
to be highly accurate. In Tables 6 and 7, the rst 20 eigenfrequency parameters
i
(i = 1, 2, . . . , 20) of
plates with SCSC and CFFF boundary conditions are provided, respectively, for three dierent values of
volume fraction index ( = 1, 5, 10) and three dierent thickness-to-length ratios (h/b = 0.01, 0.1, 0.25)
corresponding to thin, moderately thick and thick plates. Results are obtained using 10 10 terms of the
11
Chebyshev polynomials. It is seen that, irrespective of the boundary conditions and thickness-to-length
ratio, the natural frequencies decreases with increasing the volume fraction index . This is expected since
the core has a smaller ceramic component when gets larger and thus the sandwich plate has an overall
reduced stiness. Note that this trend is smoother for high values of the volume fraction exponent, especially
when thin plates are considered. In this case, the natural frequencies of the rst modes for both SCSC and
CFFF plates are in practice unaected when > 5. It is also observed that the frequency parameters of
plates with SCSC boundary conditions are all higher than the corresponding values of cantilever plates.
This is due to the higher constraints introduced at boundaries in the rst case. As expected, the natural
frequencies decrease as the thickness-to-length ratio h/b increases. However, it is worth noting that the
variation of the fundamental mode of CFFF plates with respect to h/b is very low. Finally, it is noted that
for thicker plates the eigenfrequencies tend to crowd together with increasing the mode number.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, a unied Ritz method based on two classes of advanced 2-D kinematic models is proposed
for accurate evaluation of natural frequencies of thick and thin FGM sandwich plates with various boundary
conditions. In particular, numerical results are presented for sandwich plates with homogeneous skins and
FGM core. The formulation has attractive invariant properties since many higher-order equivalent single-
layer and layerwise plate theories can be adopted without the need of new mathematical development for each
dierent kinematic approach. Furthermore, accurate upper-bound frequency solutions, even for very thick
plates, can be obtained for arbitrary combination of boundary conditions using computationally ecient
2-D models.
It is found that the rate of convergence of the method is not substantially aected by the kinematic
theory and the through-the-thickness volume fraction prole. Using Chebyshev polynomials as admissible
functions, well-converged solutions are obtained when 10 terms along each in-plane direction are retained
in the Ritz series expansion. Comparisons with reference values available in the literature show that the
present technique is capable of providing very accurate results also when relatively high wavenumbers are
of interest. In this case, layerwise approaches are found to be mandatory for condent prediction of the
vibration behavior. The rst 20 eigenfrequency parameters for two illustrative examples with SCSC and
CFFF boundary conditions are also presented for the rst time. The eects of material variation and
thickness-to-length ratio on the frequency characteristics are discussed. Tabulated values are shown using
a rened fourth-order layerwise theory and are considered to represent valuable reference data for future
comparison studies.
12
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14
Table 1: Convergence study of a square, simply-supported, thin (h/b = 0.01) sandwich plate with FGM core ( = 1).
Mode
Theory P 1 2 3 4 5
ED3 6 1.38669 3.47578 3.47578 5.55743 7.03187
8 1.38669 3.46525 3.46525 5.54195 6.92683
10 1.38669 3.46521 3.46521 5.54189 6.92534
12 1.38669 3.46521 3.46521 5.54189 6.92533
LD3 6 1.38669 3.47578 3.47578 5.55743 7.03186
8 1.38669 3.46525 3.46525 5.54195 6.92682
10 1.38669 3.46521 3.46521 5.54189 6.92533
12 1.38669 3.46520 3.46520 5.54189 6.92532
Table 2: Convergence study of a square thick (h/b = 0.2) sandwich plate with FGM core ( = 10) and dierent boundary
conditions.
Mode
BCs Theory P 1 2 3 4 5
SSSS ED3 8 1.44609 2.92730 2.92730 3.24052 3.24052
10 1.44609 2.92730 2.92730 3.24049 3.24049
12 1.44609 2.92730 2.92730 3.24049 3.24049
LD3 8 1.44551 2.92722 2.92722 3.23766 3.23766
10 1.44551 2.92722 2.92722 3.23763 3.23763
12 1.44551 2.92722 2.92722 3.23763 3.23763
CCCC ED3 6 2.29919 4.09486 4.09486 5.54284 5.63046
8 2.29469 4.08986 4.08986 5.53719 5.62739
10 2.29347 4.08849 4.08849 5.53577 5.62654
11 2.29326 4.08829 4.08829 5.53558 5.62643
12 2.29318 4.08820 4.08820 5.53549 5.62616
LD3 6 2.29636 4.08729 4.08729 5.53086 5.62966
8 2.29120 4.08098 4.08098 5.52345 5.62620
10 2.28926 4.07834 4.07834 5.52043 5.62492
11 2.28868 4.07762 4.07762 5.51963 5.62452
12 2.28835 4.07702 4.07702 5.51893 5.62426
15
Table 3: Comparison of the natural frequencies (Hz) for square SSSS single-layer FGM plates.
Mode
Theory 1 2,3 4 5,6 7,8 9,10
0 ED2 144.97 362.15 579.02 723.42 939.76 1229.3
ED4 144.96 362.11 578.90 723.23 939.44 1228.7
Zhao et al. [13] 143.67 360.64 575.87 725.53 938.18 1238.8
He et al. [33] 144.66 360.53 569.89 720.57 919.74 1225.7
2000 ED2 271.03 677.09 1082.6 1352.6 1757.1 2298.4
ED4 271.01 677.00 1082.3 1352.2 1756.5 2297.4
Zhao et al. [13] 268.60 674.38 1076.8 1356.9 1754.4 2316.9
He et al. [33] 268.92 669.40 1052.5 1338.5 1695.2 2280.9
Table 4: Comparison of the fundamental frequency parameter =
`
b
2
/h
p

0
/E
0
of fully simply-supported and clamped
square sandwich plates with Al
2
O
3
/Al graded core.

BCs h/b Theory 0.5 1 2 5 10

SSSS 0.01 3D [24] 1.33931 1.38669 1.44491 1.53143 1.59105
ED2 1.33934 1.38671 1.44493 1.53145 1.59108
LD3 1.33931 1.38669 1.44491 1.53142 1.59105
0.1 3D [24] 1.29751 1.34847 1.40828 1.49309 1.54980
ED2 1.30054 1.35031 1.40970 1.49501 1.55248
LD3 1.29750 1.34846 1.40828 1.49312 1.54983
0.2 3D [24] 1.19580 1.25338 1.31569 1.39567 1.44540
ED2 1.20511 1.25927 1.32039 1.40196 1.45402
LD3 1.19580 1.25337 1.31569 1.39579 1.44551
CCCC 0.01 3D [24] 2.45438 2.54149 2.64835 2.80692 2.91611
ED2 2.45470 2.54170 2.64852 2.80713 2.91639
LD3 2.45438 2.54149 2.64835 2.80692 2.91611
0.1 3D [24] 2.24154 2.34606 2.45973 2.60760 2.70070
ED2 2.26123 2.35920 2.47043 2.62102 2.71836
LD3 2.24155 2.34603 2.45971 2.60777 2.70084
0.2 3D [24] 1.86081 1.97993 2.09554 2.22142 2.28896
ED2 1.90290 2.00930 2.11990 2.25119 2.32725
LD3 1.86096 1.97990 2.09547 2.22174 2.28926
16
Table 5: Comparison of the rst ve natural frequencies =
`
b
2
/h
p

0
/E
0
corresponding to the fundamental vibration
mode of SSSS sandwich plates with a/b = 1, h/b = 0.25 and Al/Al
2
O
3
graded core.
Mode
Theory 1 2 3 4 5
5 LD4 [27] 1.0357 2.3620 3.8287 5.8725 6.8237
LD4 1.0357 2.3621 3.8288 5.8725 6.8237
LD3 1.0362 2.3621 3.8299 5.9363 6.9163
ED4 1.0365 2.3628 3.8323 5.8887 6.9316
FSDT [27] 1.0628 2.3762 3.9546 7.2248 8.3316
CLT [27] 1.1955 2.4159 4.1396
10 LD4 [27] 1.0095 2.2269 3.6058 5.5612 6.5135
LD4 1.0095 2.2269 3.6059 5.5612 6.5136
LD3 1.0103 2.2278 3.6098 5.5661 6.5411
ED4 1.0123 2.2283 3.6122 5.5965 6.5445
FSDT [27] 1.0484 2.2408 3.7331 6.8148 7.9046
CLT [27] 1.1951 2.2765 3.8992
Table 6: First 20 eigenfrequency parameters
i
=
`

i
b
2
/h
p

0
/E
0
of sandwich plates with FGM Al/Al
2
O
3
core, aspect ratio
a/b = 2 and SCSC boundary conditions.
h/b = 0.01 h/b = 0.1 h/b = 0.25
Mode = 1 = 5 = 10 = 1 = 5 = 10 = 1 = 5 = 10
1 1.6818 1.5459 1.5452 1.5875 1.4155 1.3957 1.2752 1.0576 1.0104
2 2.0420 1.8768 1.8760 1.9137 1.7031 1.6783 1.5211 1.2661 1.2123
3 2.7529 2.5300 2.5289 2.5567 2.2700 2.2355 2.0046 1.6689 1.5918
4 3.8535 3.5413 3.5396 3.5291 3.1185 3.0658 2.0402 1.6892 1.5981
5 4.4802 4.1163 4.1139 3.9752 3.4568 3.3722 2.6141 2.1554 2.0311
6 4.8862 4.4890 4.4863 4.3075 3.7411 3.6483 2.6891 2.2220 2.0963
7 5.3475 4.9135 4.9109 4.7986 4.2095 4.0171 2.7667 2.2251 2.1188
8 5.6006 5.1450 5.1417 4.8903 4.2394 4.1261 2.9897 2.4135 2.2766
9 6.6576 6.1153 6.1111 5.1200 4.2632 4.1322 3.3755 2.7317 2.5774
10 7.9949 7.3438 7.3389 5.7405 4.9628 4.8327 3.3924 2.7797 2.6198
11 8.0834 7.4240 7.4186 6.5726 5.4689 5.1530 3.5115 2.8705 2.7204
12 8.6692 7.9601 7.9533 6.8581 5.9048 5.7407 3.5758 2.9226 2.7563
13 9.1004 8.3556 8.3482 6.8821 5.9503 5.7950 3.7968 3.0928 2.9151
14 9.8363 9.0305 9.0223 7.1563 6.0882 5.8844 3.9174 3.1675 2.9842
15 10.569 9.7041 9.6958 7.4710 6.3506 6.1367 4.0214 3.2682 3.0860
16 10.897 10.003 9.9937 8.0076 6.7988 6.5675 4.0656 3.3034 3.1187
17 11.106 10.198 10.190 8.5309 7.0898 6.6803 4.4648 3.5951 3.3657
18 12.305 11.294 11.283 8.6768 7.4031 7.0652 4.5033 3.6098 3.4080
19 13.570 12.455 12.443 8.7735 7.4363 7.1675 4.5924 3.6993 3.4750
20 14.217 13.045 13.030 9.0255 7.4980 7.1787 4.6726 3.7538 3.5140
17
Table 7: First 20 eigenfrequency parameters
i
=
`

i
b
2
/h
p

0
/E
0
of sandwich plates with FGM Al/Al
2
O
3
core, aspect ratio
a/b = 2 and CFFF boundary conditions.
h/b = 0.01 h/b = 0.1 h/b = 0.25
Mode = 1 = 5 = 10 = 1 = 5 = 10 = 1 = 5 = 10
1 0.0603 0.0557 0.0557 0.0603 0.0554 0.0554 0.0596 0.0545 0.0543
2 0.2603 0.2393 0.2392 0.2509 0.2279 0.2268 0.2201 0.1849 0.1761
3 0.3778 0.3473 0.3472 0.3726 0.3405 0.3396 0.2381 0.2092 0.2036
4 0.8475 0.7789 0.7785 0.5734 0.4784 0.4508 0.3510 0.3128 0.3087
5 1.0599 0.9744 0.9741 0.8109 0.7338 0.7289 0.7111 0.6175 0.6036
6 1.6279 1.4961 1.4954 1.0284 0.9327 0.9271 0.8310 0.6927 0.6531
7 1.6353 1.5033 1.5028 1.5372 1.3823 1.3695 0.8748 0.7320 0.6910
8 2.0859 1.9173 1.9166 1.5713 1.4253 1.4185 0.9105 0.7910 0.7718
9 2.2307 2.0502 2.0493 1.9728 1.7265 1.6305 1.2848 1.0997 1.0689
10 2.6886 2.4708 2.4696 2.0752 1.7790 1.7136 1.3502 1.1802 1.1609
11 3.1446 2.8894 2.8878 2.0983 1.8184 1.7583 1.6202 1.3780 1.3348
12 3.5041 3.2204 3.2190 2.1813 1.8819 1.8644 1.7113 1.4633 1.4203
13 4.0668 3.7368 3.7348 2.4934 2.2242 2.1964 1.8160 1.5048 1.4250
14 4.3666 4.0117 4.0093 2.8738 2.5581 2.5254 1.9728 1.6633 1.6023
15 4.3886 4.0333 4.0316 3.2320 2.8703 2.8287 2.2131 1.8605 1.7981
16 4.8886 4.4920 4.4895 3.6801 3.2536 3.2014 2.3274 1.9267 1.8162
17 5.2774 4.7758 4.5005 3.9055 3.4458 3.3892 2.3914 1.9725 1.8680
18 5.7291 4.8492 4.8466 4.0145 3.5745 3.5302 2.5039 2.0968 2.0001
19 5.7826 5.3120 5.3086 4.3960 3.7857 3.5763 2.7249 2.2579 2.1637
20 5.8797 5.4010 5.3974 4.5634 3.9104 3.8481 2.8553 2.3597 2.2289
18
Figure 1: Plate geometry
Figure 2: A sandwich plate with homogeneous skins and Al
2
O
3
/Al graded core.
19