Nonlinear bending of functionally graded tapered beams subjected to thermal and mechanical loading

Non-linear bending analysis of tapered functionally graded (FG) beam subjected to thermal and mechanical load with general boundary condition is studied. The governing equations are derived and a discussion is made about the possibility of obtaining analytical solution. In the case of no axial force along the beam, a closed form solution is presented for the problem. For the general case with axial force, the Galerkin technique is employed to overcome the shortcoming of the analytical solution. Moreover, the Generalized Differential Quadrature (GDQ) method is also implemented to discretize and solve the governing equations in the general form and validate the results obtained from two other methods. The effects of various thermal and mechanical loading on the nonlinear bending of tapered FG beam are investigated by implementing different analytical and numerical approaches.