Free Vibration and Buckling of Functionally Graded Shell Panels in Thermal Environments

This paper investigates the free vibration and buckling behavior of singly and doubly curved shell panels made of functionally graded materials (FGMs). A higher-order shear deformation theory is used for the analysis of five shell panels, namely, cylindrical (CYL), spherical (SPH), hyperbolic paraboloid (HPR), hypar (HYP), and conoid (CON). The shell panels are subjected to a temperature field and in the case of buckling analysis, the shell panels are also subjected to a uniaxial compressive load. The properties of FGMs are considered to be temperature dependent and graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The accuracy of the formulation is validated by comparing the results with those available in the literature. The effects of geometric properties, material composition, and boundary conditions on the free vibration and buckling are studied.