Thermo-mechanical analysis of functionally graded shells

The thermo-mechanical analysis of a simply supported, functionally graded shell is considered in this work. Refined shell theories are considered to account for grading material variation in the thickness direction. The governing thermodynamical equations are derived from the Principle of Virtual Displacements. The distribution of the temperature field T(z) is not assumed linear in the thickness direction of the layered shells and Fourier's heat conduction equation is solved to provide T(z). Classical and higher order shell theories are implemented in cases of both an equivalent single layer and layer-wise variable description by referring to Carrera's Unified Formulation. The numerical results show temperature, displacement and stress distributions along the thickness direction. Different volume fractions of the metallic and ceramic constituents as well as different shell thickness ratios and orders of expansion are analyzed. These are in good agreement with the quasi-3D solution obtained considering mathematical layers with constant properties in the FGM layer and using high orders of expansion. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.