Exact elasto-plastic analysis of rotating thick-walled cylindrical pressure vessels made of functionally graded materials

The objective of this study is to obtain the exact elasto-plastic deformations and stresses of rotating thick-walled cylindrical pressure vessels made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) under plane strain condition. The plastic stresses and deformations are obtained, using Tresca’s yield condition, and its flow rule under the assumption of perfectly plastic material behavior. The material properties are assumed to vary according to power law functions, and the Poisson’s ratio is assumed constant. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, in previous studies in which exact elasto-plastic behavior of rotating FGM thick-walled cylindrical pressure vessels was investigated, variation of material density was ignored, while density is not constant in this type of structures. In the present work, rotation, internal and external pressure and variation of material properties are considered simultaneously.