Stress Analysis and Parameter Optimization of an FGM Pressure Vessel Subjected to Thermo-Mechanical Loadings

The thermo-mechanical behavior and material design of functionally graded materials (FGMs) has been gaining increasing attention in the past two decades. However, little work can obtain the exact solution of FGM vessel consisting of a finite length hollow cylinder and two closed ends due to the difficult in calculating the axial strain. By constructing an exponentially function determining the material properties and based on the steady state thermo-elastic theory and Euler-Cauchy formula, the closed-form analytical solutions of the thermo-mechanical stresses for the FGM vessel subjected to an internal pressure and a thermal load were firstly established taking the effect of closed ends into consideration. And then, a numerical model of the FGM pressure vessel was developed using the finite element (FE) method for validating the analytical solution. Lastly, a double-variable optimization model was proposed for determining the optimal material distribution of the FGM pressure vessel. The results demonstrated the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed stress formulations and optimization model in this paper, which would be helpful for better understanding and scientific design of FGM vessel or related structures.