A theoretical analysis of smart moderately thick shear deformable annular functionally graded plate

Based on Mindlin's plate theory, free vibration analysis of moderately thick shear deformable annular functionally graded plate coupled with piezoelectric layers is presented in this paper. A consistent formulation that satisfies the Maxwell static electricity equation is presented so that the full coupling effect of the piezoelectric layer on the dynamic characteristics of the annular FGM plate can be estimated based on the free vibration results. The differential equations of motion are solved analytically for various boundary conditions of the plate through the transformation of variable method. The applicability of the proposed model is analyzed by studying the effect of varying the gradient index of FGM plate on the free vibration characteristics of the structure. For some specific cases, obtained results were cross checked with those existing literatures and furthermore, verified by those obtained from three-dimensional finite element (3D FE) analyses.