Static analysis of functionally graded thin rectangular plates with various boundary supports

• Static analysis of thin functionally graded (FG) rectangular plates is performed in the present investigation.
• The analysis is based on the classical or Kirchoff's plate theory and Rayleigh–Ritz method.
• Uniformly distributed load and hydrostatic pressure are considered to be the external mechanical loads.
• Material properties of the beam vary along the thickness direction according to power-law form.
• New results for various boundary conditions are incorporated after a test of convergence and validation of present results.

Present study deals with static analysis of functionally graded (FG) rectangular plates subjected to various possible boundary conditions within the framework of classical plate theory. Material properties of the FG plate are assumed to vary continuously in the thickness direction according to power-law form. The trial functions denoting the transverse deflection of the plate are expressed as simple algebraic polynomials. Uniformly distributed load (UDL) and hydrostatic pressure are considered to be the external mechanical loads. Rayleigh–Ritz method along with mechanical kinematic relations and non-dimensionalization technique are employed in the numerical modeling to obtain the system of linear equations for the pure bending. Here the main objective is to study the effect of aspect ratio and volume fraction of the constituents on numerical factors associated with centroidal deflection, bending moments and normal stresses. New results for these factors are presented after checking the convergence pattern and validation has been done with the available results in special cases.