Thermoelastic analysis of functionally graded doubly curved shell panels using nonlinear finite element method

In this article, large amplitude flexural behaviour of functionally graded doubly curved shell panel is investigated numerically under the thermomechanical load. The nonlinear mathematical model of doubly curved shell panel is developed first time based on higher-order shear deformation theory and Green-Lagrange geometrical nonlinearity. In order to achieve the exact flexure of the structure, all the nonlinear higher order terms are included in the mathematical model. The effective material properties of functionally graded material (metal/ceramic) have been obtained based on Voigt's micromechanical model. The continuous gradation of metal and ceramic is achieved through the power-law distribution. The governing equation of the panel structure is obtained using the variational principle and a direct iterative method is employed to compute the desired responses numerically. The convergence behaviour of the proposed numerical analysis has been checked and validated through different comparisons to that available literature. Wide variety of examples is solved to reveal the effect of different geometrical parameters, material properties, constraint conditions and thermal and/or mechanical loads on the linear and nonlinear flexural behaviour of functionally graded curved panels.