Thermal stress analysis of functionally graded composites with temperature-dependent material properties

Abstract

Thermomechanical deformation of a functionally graded composite (FGC) in elevated temperature environments is investigated by the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method. The FGC is modeled as a 2-D linearly elastic solid which consists of ceramic ZrO2 and alloy Ti-6Al-4V with the volume fraction varying along a predefined direction. Unlike most investigations performed so far, temperature-dependent thermophysical and thermomechanical properties are considered for both constituents in this work. The effective material properties of the FGC are evaluated with the micromechanical models. An FGC hollow cylinder under an internal temperature change is first studied; the numerical results agree very well with those computed by the finite element method. The parametric studies with respect to different profiles of graded FGCs are performed for a clamped-clamped thick beam and a square plate with a central hole, respectively. It is found that inclusion of temperature dependence for the material properties has a great impact on thermomechanical response prediction for FGCs in elevated temperature environments.