Bending analysis of thin functionally graded plate under in-plane stiffness variations

The results obtained demonstrate that the direction of material stiffness gradient and the nature of its variation have significant effects on the mechanical behavior of FG plate. Moreover, the good agreement found between the exact solution and the numerical simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of graded solid elements in the modeling of FG plate deflection under bending. The types of analytical solutions obtained can be used to obtain deflections and stresses in thin structures with specified stiffness gradients induced by manufacturing processes, such as multi-material 3D printing.