DYNAMIC STABILITY CHARACTERISTICS OF FUNCTIONALLY GRADED PLATES UNDER ARBITRARY PERIODIC LOADS.

The dynamic instability of functionally graded material (FGM) plates under an arbitrary periodic load is studied. The properties of the functionally graded plates (FGPs) are assumed to vary continuously across the plate thickness according to a simple power law. With the derived Mathieu equations, the dynamic instability regions of the FGPs are determined by using the Bolotin's method. The in-plane periodic load is taken to be a combination of periodic axial and bending stress in the example problems. The influences of the volume fraction index, layer thickness ratio, static and dynamic load on the dynamic instability of ceramic-FGM-metal plates are discussed. The results reveal that the excitation frequency, instability region and dynamic instability index of these plates are significantly affected by the static load, dynamic load, volume fraction index and layer thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]