On the stress singularities and boundary layer in moderately thick functionally graded sectorial plates

In this paper, the stress analysis of moderately thick functionally graded sector plate is developed for studying the singularities in vicinity of the vertex and effects of boundary layer. Based on the first-order shear deformation plate theory, the governing partial differential equations are obtained. Using an analytical method, the stretching and bending equilibrium equations are decoupled. Also, introducing a function, called boundary layer function, the three bending equations are converted into two decoupled equations. These equations are solved analytically and the effects of boundary layer function on stress components are shown. Also, the singularities of shear force, moment resultants and boundary layer function are discussed for both salient (α⩽180)(α⩽180) and re-entrant (α>180)(α>180) sectorial plates. In order to verify the accuracy of the results, the governing equations are also solved using differential quadrature method (DQM). By comparing the results of exact method with DQM, a good agreement can be seen.