Thermal analysis of FGM plates - A critical review of various modeling techniques and solution methods

Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) are the advanced materials in the field of composites, which can resist high temperatures and are proficient in reducing the thermal stresses. In recent decades, significant investigations are reported in the predicting the response of FGM plates subjected to thermal loads. This paper presents a comprehensive review of developments, applications, various mathematical idealizations of materials, temperature profiles, modeling techniques and solutions methods that are adopted for the thermal analysis of FGM plates. An attempt has been made to classify the various analytical and numerical methods used for the stress, vibration and buckling analyses of FGM plates under one-dimensional or three-dimensional variation of temperature with constant/linear/nonlinear temperatures profiles across the thickness. An effort has been made to focus the discussion on the various research studies carried out till recently for the thermal analysis of FGM plates. Finally, some important conclusions and the suggestions for future directions of research in this area are presented. It is felt that this review paper will serve the interests of all the academicians, researchers and engineers involved in the analysis and design of FGM plates.