Buckling analysis of FG plates via 2D and quasi-3D refined shear deformation theories

In this work, a novel combined logarithmic, secant and tangential 2D and quasi -3D refined higher order shear deformation theory is proposed to examine the buckling analysis of simply supported uniform functionally graded plates under uniaxial and biaxial loading. The proposed formulations contain a reduced number of variables compared to others similar solutions. The combined function employed in this study ensures automatically the zero -transverse shear stresses at the free surfaces of the structure. Various models of the material distributions are considered (linear, quadratic, cubic inverse quadratic and power -law). The differentials stability equations are derived via virtual work principle with including the stretching effect. The Navier's approach is applied to solve the governing equations which satisfying the boundary conditions. Several comparative and parametric studies are performed to illustrates the validity and efficacity of the proposed model and the various factors influencing the critical buckling load of thick FG plate.