Bending analysis of sandwich plates with different face sheet materials and functionally graded soft core

This paper presents an investigation on the bending response of functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates under transverse distributed loadings. A new model of FGM sandwich plate is developed. The top face sheet and the bottom face sheet have different material properties. The material properties of the functionally graded soft core are assumed to be graded depending on the volume fractions of the constituents in the thickness direction. The governing equations are deduced based on the static equilibrium method. Containing only three unknowns, these equations are then solved via Navier approach. Benchmark comparisons of the new model solutions with the solutions of several other theories are conducted to verify the rationality and efficiency of the proposed method. The influences of volume fraction distribution, the thickness to side ratio and the layer thickness ratio on plate bending characteristics are studied in detail.