ARTICLE IN PRESS

International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 926937

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Thermal buckling of functionally graded rectangular plates subjected

to partial heating
Takuya Morimoto, Yoshinobu Tanigawa, Ryuusuke Kawamura
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1, Gakuen-cho, Nakaku, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531, Japan
Received 1 August 2005; received in revised form 14 February 2006; accepted 29 March 2006

Abstract
We present the thermal buckling analysis of functionally graded rectangular plates subjected to partial heating in a plane and uniform
temperature rise through its thickness. The plate is simply supported for out-of-plane deformation and perfectly clamped for in-plane
deformation. It is assumed that the functionally graded material properties such as the coefcient of linear thermal expansion and
Youngs modulus are changed individually in the thickness direction of the plate with the power law, while Poissons ratio is assumed to
be constant. Analytical developments consist of two stages. First, the nonuniform in-plane resultant forces are determined by solving a
plane thermoelastic problem. Then the critical buckling temperatures of the plates with the predetermined resultant forces are calculated
as the generalized eigenvalue problem which is constructed by using the Galerkin method. Finally, the effects of material inhomogeneity,
aspect ratio, and heated region on the critical buckling temperatures are examined.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Thermal buckling; Thermoelastic stability; Inhomogeneous materials; Functionally graded materials; Partial heating; Rectangular plates

1. Introduction
Inhomogeneous materials such as functionally graded
materials (FGMs) have been developed and collected for
technical interests as new functional and intelligent
materials [1] that are mainly used as heat-resistant
materials. These are developed to be used as thin-walled
members of engineering structures such as a plate or shell
in the area of aircrafts, nuclear plants and micro-electromechanical systems. In many of applications, such thinwalled members are subjected to thermal loads, which may
cause thermal buckling [2,3]. The thermoelastic stability of
thin-walled members is of importance in a safety design
and in development of energy absorbing structures.
The nonuniformity of temperature eld in a plane of the
plate is commonly observed. For example, the area of
aeronautics hypersonic aircrafts are subjected to severe
aerodynamic heating during ights. The thin plates used in
Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 72 254 9208; fax: +81 72 254 9904.

E-mail address: tanigawa@me.osakafu-u.ac.jp (Y. Tanigawa).

0020-7403/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2006.03.015

the aircraft are usually fastened to the cooling substructures that function as heat sinks because of less heating.
Thus, the temperature distribution over the plates will not
be uniform [46] even under the uniform heat ux. On the
other hand, laser beam heating produces more localized
temperature distribution on the surface of the catalyst plate
in the area of materials processing [7,8]. The plate has
nonuniform in-plane resultant forces when its temperature
distribution is nonuniform or localized one thereby causing
compressive in-plane stresses in some region of the plate or
tensile stresses elsewhere. It buckles at certain negative and
positive critical buckling temperature under the prescribed
mechanical boundary condition [911].
Many papers have been published on the thermal
buckling of functionally graded plates due to uniform inplane temperature eld [1222]. To our knowledge,
however, there has not been any investigation of the effect
of nonuniform in-plane temperature distribution on the
thermal buckling of functionally graded plates. In this
paper, we analyze the thermal buckling of functionally
graded rectangular plates subjected to partial heating in a

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T. Morimoto et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 926937

plane and uniform temperature rise through its thickness.

The plate is simply supported for out-of-plane deformation
and perfectly clamped for in-plane deformation. It is
assumed that the FGM properties such as the coefcient of
linear thermal expansion and Youngs modulus are
changed individually in the thickness direction of the plate
with the power law, while Poissons ratio is assumed to be
constant. Analytical developments consist of two stages.
First, the nonuniform in-plane resultant forces are
determined by solving a plane thermoelastic problem.
Then the critical buckling temperatures of the plates with
the predetermined resultant forces are calculated as the
generalized eigenvalue problem which is constructed by
using the Galerkin method. Finally, the effects of material
inhomogeneity, aspect ratio, and heated region on the
critical buckling temperatures are examined.
2. Fundamental equations

n const:;

that the origin of the coordinate is suitably selected in the

thickness direction of the plate so as to be the reference
plane, the analysis can be easily treated with an elementary
theory [25] because the stretching and bending deformations are not coupled. In order to determine the position of
the reference plane from the upper surface of the plate, we
introduce the following condition in the coordinate
variable z0 :
Z h
Ez0 z0
Z dz0 0
(2)
0

which means that the plane with the origin Oz 0 is

determined so as to satisfy the rst moment with respect to
space-dependent Youngs modulus Ez0 being zero. Consequently, the distance Z from the upper surface to the
position Oz 0 is obtained as
Z h
Z h
Z
Ez0 z0 dz0
Ez0 dz0 .
(3)
0

We have already established the fundamental equations

for the thermal buckling problem of functionally graded
rectangular plate of width a, length b, and thickness h
subjected to arbitrary thermal loads Tx; y; z [17]. Therefore, we begin by reviewing the fundamental equations.
The coordinates in the thickness direction of the plate
are taken as shown in Fig. 1. It is assumed that the FGM
properties such as the coefcient of linear thermal
expansion a and Youngs modulus E are changed
individually in the thickness direction of the plate with
the power law of the coordinate variable z0 , while Poissons
ratio n is assumed to be constant [23,24], i.e.,






z0 k
z0 m
az0 a0 1
; Ez0 E 0 1
,
h
h
1

where z0 z Z 0pz0 ph; Z is the distance from the

upper surface z0 0 to the reference plane z 0, which
is given in the later; k and m are arbitrary numerical
parameters (hereafter referred to as inhomogeneity parameters); a0 and E 0 are the reference values of a and E at the
upper surface, respectively.
Since the material properties given by Eq. (1) do not
have symmetry about the middle plane of the plate, the
stretching and bending deformations are coupled. This
leads to complexity for the analytical development. In case

927

The fundamental equations for the thermal buckling

problem of functionally graded plates can be easily derived
by the introduction of newly dened reference plane
described above. Considering the equilibriums of in-plane
forces, out-of-plane forces and moments, we can obtain the
following fundamental equations in terms of Airys stress
function F and transverse deection w:

T,
4 F
1
nr
2N
r

(4)



2 2
a 2
q F q w
q2 F q2 w

4
2

r w

r M T a0 T 0
2

qy qx 2 qx 2 qy2
D

q2 F q2 w

2
qx qy qx qy

2  q2 =qx 2 q2 =qy2 , r
4  q4 =qx 4
in which r
4
4
2
2
4
2q =qx qy q =qy and Airys stress function F is
dened by
2
x q F;
N
qy2

2
y q F;
N
qx 2

2
xy
q F .
N
qx qy

(6)

With the material properties given by Eq. (1), the thermally

T and moment M
T , the bending rigidity D

resultant force N
and the position of the reference plane Z are obtained as
follows:
Z 2
T
zT
x;
N
a ^zE^
y ; z^ d^z
1

1
1
n
Z

x;
z^mk T
y ; z^ d^z,

zT
x;
a ^zE^
y ; z^^z d^z
Z 2
1
x;

z^mk1 T
y ; z^ d^z
1
n 1

Z 2
mk

1 Z
z^
Tx;
y ; z^ d^z ,

T
M

Fig. 1. The coordinates in the thickness direction of the functionally

graded rectangular plate.

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T. Morimoto et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 926937

928

1
1
n2

z^m ^z
Z
12 d^z
1

 m3
1
2

1
2m2
1


21

1
n2 m 3
m2

m1
2

1
1 Z 2
,
m1

m 1 2m2
1

1.
(10)
m 2 2m1
1
To express boundary conditions, the in-plane displacements u; v are needed later; they can be obtained from the
following relations, which are compatible by Eq. (4):


qu
1 a q2 F
q2 F

n 2 1
nN T ,
qy2
qx 1
n2 C
qx
 2


qv
1 a q F
q2 F
T ,

n

1


n
N
qx 2
qy 1
n2 C
qy2
Z

qu qv
2 a q2 F

,
qx qy
qy qx
1
nC
is given by
where the stretching rigidity C
Z 2
1 2m1
1
m
1
^
C
.
d^
z

z
1
n2 1
1
n2 m 1

11

(12)

Fig. 2. The analytical model and the coordinate system.

central axes. Supposing that the plate is quite thin, we may

neglect the temperature change in the thickness direction.
Thus, the plate has uniform temperature rise through the
thickness of plate,
(
1 at
x 0 oxo
x 0 ;
y0 oyoy0 ;
(14)
T

0 at x 1=2; y b=2:

Note that the following dimensionless quantities used in

Eqs. (4)(12) are introduced:

We express Eq. (14) as double Fourier expansion:

z; Z; a
x; y; b;
; z^ z Z 1; x;
y ; b
h
a
0
az0
Ez

u;
v;
w
z
a ^z
;
; E^
; u; v ; w

a0
E0
a0 T 0 h
T
F
C ; D
D ; F
;
T ; C
T0
E0h
a0 T 0 E 0 a2 h
E 0 h3
x; N
T MT :
y; N
xy ; N
T N x ; N y ; N xy ; N T ; M
N
a0 T 0 E 0 h
a0 T 0 E 0 h2

z; Z ; a

1 X
1
X

tij cos ai x cos bj y ,

(15)

i1 j1

where
tij

16 1
sin ai x 0 sin bj y 0 ,
b ai bj

ai 2i
1p;

bj 2j
1p=b.

16

(13)
The fundamental equations given by Eqs. (4) and (5) are
the same forms as those of a homogeneous plate, excepting
the slightly different denitions in Eqs. (7)(10), (12).
Giving the inhomogeneity parameters zero in Eq. (1), these
equations are completely reduced to those of a homogeneous plate. Since the fundamental equations are
uncoupled, we can separately solve them. Thus, analytical
developments consist of two stages. In the next section, we
rst determine the nonuniform in-plane resultant forces by
solving Eq. (4). Then we calculate the critical buckling
temperatures with the predetermined resultant forces.
3. Analytical developments
We now consider the thermal buckling problem that the
plate is partially heated on its central rectangular region
characterized by 2x 0  2y0 as shown in Fig. 2. The heated
region is assumed to be doubly symmetrical about the plate

3.1. Plane thermoelastic problem

We rst solve the plane thermoelastic problem governed
by Eq. (4) to determine the distribution of nonuniform in x; N
y; N
xy and displacements
plane resultant forces N
u; v . Substituting Eq. (15) into Eq. (7), thermally resultant
T x;
force N
y yields
T x;
N
y

1 X
1
1 2mk1
1 X
tij cos ai x cos bj y .
1
n m k 1 i1 j1

(17)
The fundamental equation for plane thermoelastic problem
can be obtained by substituting Eq. (17) into Eq. (4),
1 X
1
mk1

1X
4 F 2
tij a2i b2j
r
m k 1 i1 j1

 cos ai x cos bj y .

18

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929

The general solution F x;

y of Eq. (18) consists of a
homogeneous solution F h x;
y and a particular solution
F p x;
y :

y; N
xy can be obtained by
x; N
The resultant forces N
substituting Eq. (19) into Eq. (6):

F x;
y F p x;
y .
y F h x;

x
N

(19)

F h x;
y

gi y cos ai x

i1

a2i C 1i cosh ai y C 2i 2 cosh ai y

i1

ai y sinh ai y  cos ai x
1
X


b2j D1j cosh bj x D2j bj x sinh bj x
cos bj y

We suppose that the homogeneous solution of Eq. (18)

takes the form,
1
X

1
X

1
X

j1

hj x
cos bj y .

(20)

j1

1 X
1
X

b2j f ij cos ai x cos bj y ,

26

i1 j1

4 F 0 which is the homoSubstituting Eq. (20) into r

geneous equation of Eq. (18), we have two ordinary
differential equations for gi and hj , respectively,

y

N

1
X

a2i C 1i cosh ai y C 2i ai y sinh ai y  cos ai x

i1

d4 gi
d2 gi

2a2i
a4i gi 0,
4
dy
dy2
2
d4 hj
2 d hj


2b
b4j hj 0.
j
dx 4
dx 2

j1

21

j1

bj x cosh bj x
sin bj y
1 X
1
X


ai bj f ij sin ai x sin bj y .

23

in which the coefcients C 1i ; C 2i ; D1j ; D2j are determined

by the in-plane boundary conditions which will be
described later. Taking into account the inhomogeneous
term of r.h.s. of Eq. (18), the particular solution F p can be
obtained as
1 X
1
X

f ij cos ai x cos bj y

(24)

i1 j1

Furthermore, substituting Eqs. (17) and (19) into Eqs. (11),

and then integrating them, the in-plane displacements u; v
can be obtained as
1 a
u

1
n2 C

1
X

ai C 2i 1 n cosh ai y

i1

C 3i f2 cosh ai y
1 nai y sinh ai y g sin ai x
1
X
bj D2j 1 n sinh bj x


j1

D3j f
1
n sinh bj x

with the expansion coefcient,

2mk1
1 tij
f ij
.
m k 1 a2i b2j

28

i1 j1

j1

F p

a2i C 1i sinh ai y C 2i sinh ai y

ai y cosh ai y  sin ai x
1
X
b2j D1j sinh bj x D2j sinh bj x

F h x;
y
1
X
C 1i cosh ai y C 2i ai y sinh ai y cos ai x

D1j cosh bj x D2j bj x sinh bj x

cos bj y

1
X
i1

22

We can then obtain the following homogeneous solution

after substituting Eqs. (22) into Eq. (20):

27

i1 j1

xy
N

gi C 1i cosh ai y C 2i ai y sinh ai y ,

i1
1
X

b2j D1j cosh bj x D2j 2 cosh bj x

bj x sinh bj x
cos bj y
1
1
XX


a2i f ij cos ai x cos bj y ,

Here, putting gi exply and hj explx,

we obtain the
coefcients gi and hj by considering the symmetry about x
and y -axis:

hj D1j cosh bj x D2j bj x sinh bj x.

1
X

1 nbj x cosh bj xg

cos bj y
(25)

1 X
1
X
i1 j1

1 nai f ij sin ai x cos bj y ,

29

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T. Morimoto et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 926937

930

1 a
v

1
n2 C

*

1
X

ai C 2i 1 n sinh ai y

i1

C 3i f
1
n sinh ai y 1 nai y cosh ai y g cos ai x

1
X
bj D2j 1 n cosh bj x

The coefcients C 1i and D1j are determined by numerically

solving Eqs. (34) and (35) simultaneously. After obtaining
C 1i and D1j , the coefcients C 2i and D2j are calculated by
substituting them into Eqs. (32) and (33).
3.2. Thermal buckling problem

j1

D3j f2 cosh bj x 1 nbj x sinh bj xg

sin bj y
+
1
1
XX

1 nbj f ij cos ai x sin bj y

30

i1 j1

in which the degrees of freedom for the rigid body

movements are neglected.
We suppose that the in-plane boundary conditions are
perfectly clamped in all edges, i.e.,
u v 0at x 1=2,

v u 0at y b=2.

31
We now determine the coefcients C 1i ; C 2i ; D1j ; D2j
satisfying the boundary conditions (31). Substituting Eqs.
(29) and (30) into Eq. (31), and carrying out some
trigonometric operations, then we have the following
simultaneous equations for the coefcients:
D2j

1 n coshbj =2
D1j ,
2 coshbj =2 1 nbj =2 sinhbj =2

C 2i

1 n coshai b=2
C 1i ,

2 coshai b=2 1 nai b=2 sinhai b=2

(32)

Next we solve the fundamental equation of thermal

buckling problem given by Eq. (5) with the resultant forces
predetermined in previous section. The presence of the
T renders the behavior which
thermally resultant moment M
the plate deects under the in-plane thermal loading, no
matter how small these loads may be. That is, the presence of
T implies an imperfect system [26]. The corresponding
M
equation for the special case which gives rise to a bifurcation
T 0 in Eq. (5). In this
buckling is obtained by putting M
paper, we develop the thermal buckling problem as a perfect
system by neglecting the thermal curvature in a prebuckling
state. Then the fundamental equation (5) reduces to a
homogeneous partial differential equation:

2 2

4
q F q w q2 F q2 w
q2 F q2 w
D

0.

2
r w

a0 T 0
qx qy qx qy
a 2
qy2 qx 2 qx 2 qy2
(36)
For the corresponding boundary conditions, we suppose
that the plate is simply supported at all edges for transverse
deection,
q2 w

0
qx 2
q2 w

0
qy2

w
0;
(33)

1
2X

ai sinai =2 sinbj b=2

b i1

41 nC 1i

w
0;

a2i bj
a2i b2j 2

cosh2 ai b=2

2 coshai b=2
1 nai b=2
sinhai b=2
3
n sinhbj =2 coshbj =2
1 nbj =2

bj D1j
2 coshbj =2 1 nbj =2 sinhbj =2
1
X

ai f ij sinai =2 0,
34

w
x;
y

bj sinai =2 sinbj b=2

a2i b2j 2

cosh2 bj =2

ai C 1i
2 coshbj =2 1 nbj =2 sinhbj =2

coshai b=2

1 nai b=2
3
n sinhai b=2


2 coshai b=2
1 nai b=2
sinhai b=2

j1

bj f ij sinbj b=2
0.

Q
P X
X

wpq cos ap x cos bq y ,

(38)

where wpq represents the amplitude of the buckling mode

with p and q which are half-waves over x and y -directions,
respectively. Substituting Eq. (38) into [l.h.s of Eq. (36)]
 R, and applying the Galerkins procedure:
Z 1=2 Z b=2

R cos ar x cos bs y dx dy 0,

ai b2j

1
X

37

p1 q1

j1

41 nD1j

at y b=2.

The boundary value problem consisting of Eqs. (36) and

(37) can be represented in a generalized eigenvalue
problem. This is required to determine the values of the
buckling temperature a0 T 0 such that the homogeneous
equation has nontrivial solution.
The exact solution of Eq. (36) under the boundary
conditions (37) may not be available because the expression
of the stress function F is very complicated. Therefore, we
assume that the approximate solution w
of Eq. (36) can be
expressed as nite double Fourier series,

i1
1
X

at x 1=2,

1=2

b=2

r 1; 3; 5; . . . ; P; s 1; 3; 5; . . . ; Q
35

39

yield a generalized eigenvalue system:

AI; JxJ a0 T 0 BI; JxJ,

(40)

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931

with
I Qr
1 s; J Qp
1 q,
b
AI; J a2r b2s 2 dIJ ,
4
a 2
p; q; r; s,
BI; J N
0
D
fxJgT fw11 ; w12 ; . . . ; w1Q ; w21 ; . . . ; w2Q ; . . . ,
wP1 ; wP2 ; . . . ; wPQ g,

4. Numerical results and discussion

4.1. In-plane resultant forces
We present numerical results of the nonuniform in-plane
resultant forces determined by Eqs. (26)(28). For numerical calculation of the in-plane forces, we take the following
values:
a 100;

b 2;

x 0 y 0 0:25.

Fig. 3 shows the variation over the plate of the in-plane

x; N
y; N
xy for a homogeneous plate
resultant forces N
k m 0. The compressive forces are found in both x
and y -directions in the principal directions to each
resultant force over the heated region. These compressive
forces induce a thermal buckling. The plate also has
xy at four edges of the heated region
singular values of N
due to the expression of the partial heating in the form of
step function in Eq. (15).

x
N

1.0

y
N

xy
N
0.60
0.45
0.30
0.15
0.00
-0.15
-0.30
-0.45
-0.60

0.5

0.0

-0.5

-1.0
-0.5

0.0
x

(b)

(c)

(d)

41

0 is a sum of
where dIJ is Kronecker delta and N
compressive and tensile forces contributed to transverse
direction (see Appendix in detail). Note that all eigenvalues
are real because the coefcient matrices A; B are real
symmetric matrices of the order P  Q. We numerically
solve Eq. (40) to obtain eigenvalues and then seek the
positive minimum eigenvalue as the critical buckling
temperature a0 T 0cr .

n 0:3;

(a)

0.5

Fig. 3. The variation over the plate of the in-plane resultant forces
x; N
y; N
xy .
N

Fig. 4. Effect of the inhomogeneity parameter k on the in-plane resultant

forces along the coordinate axes.

Fig. 4 shows the effect of the inhomogeneity parameter k

for the coefcient of linear thermal expansion a on the in y along the coordinate axes.
x; N
plane resultant forces N
The another inhomogeneity parameter m is set to zero in
order to evaluate individually. The in-plane resultant forces
x; N
y near the plate center over the heated region
N
increase with increasing the inhomogeneity parameter k.
The results are exactly same as in the case of the varying m
with k 0 because the inhomogeneity parameters depending on the in-plane resultant forces are only included the
term 2mk1
1=m k 1 in Eq. (25).
4.2. Critical buckling temperatures
We examine the effects of inhomogeneity parameters
k; m and the variation of the aspect ratio b on the critical
buckling temperature a0 T 0cr under the resultant forces
determined in Section 4.1. In order to evaluate the effect of
each material property individually, we carried out the
numerical calculations by varying one inhomogeneity
parameter and setting the another parameter to zero. For
we consider under following
increasing the aspect ratio b,
two partial heating conditions:

(i) the rectangular heated region is kept constant

x 0 L=2; y 0 L=2; the region is constantly square
with sides L, and
(ii) the rectangular heated region is proportional to the
aspect ratio x 0 L=2; y 0 b  L=2.
For numerical calculation of the critical buckling temperatures, we take the following values:
n 0:3;

a 100;

L 0:5.

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4.2.1. Heating condition (i)

As we presented in the Section 4.1, the in-plane resultant
forces are signicantly changed near the heated region.
Therefore, many degrees of freedom P; Q are necessarily
required to represent the corresponding buckling behavior.
To evaluate the effect of degrees of freedom on the
critical buckling temperature with the variation of the
heated region and the aspect ratio, we carried out the
convergence study for the degrees of freedom P; Q
with b f1; 5g and L f0:2; 0:5; 0:8g. The results are
shown in Table 1. Large number of degrees of freedom
are required when b increases for Q or L decreases for P
and Q. The convergence criterion is selected as the
accuracy of fourth order of magnitude of the critical
buckling temperature. From these results, we use the values
P 2 and Q 10 with L 0:5 in the subsequent
numerical calculations.
We also present the effects of P; Q on the critical
buckling temperature and the buckling mode for a
homogeneous plate k m 0 in Fig. 5. The critical
buckling temperature decreases as the degree of freedom
increases from 1 to 20. This tends to be signicantly
affected when the aspect ratio increases. Fig. 5 also shows

Table 1
The results of the convergence study for the degree of freedom
L

0.2
0.5
0.8

that the critical buckling modes P; Q f1; 1; 2; 10g at

b 3. These are plotted using eigenvectors which are
normalized by the maximum amplitude. The mode
P; Q 2; 10 has more localized mode than the mode
P; Q 1; 1. This implies that the wavelength of the
mode is sufciently small compared with the plate
dimension in the y -direction. The study associated with a
localized buckling is one of important topics in elastic
instability problems. The rigorous discussions of localized

[1106 ]
400
m = 0.0
Critical buckling temperature, 0T0cr

932

k = 0.0

350

300

k = 0.5

250

k = 1.0

200

k = 1.5

150

b 1

b 5

b 1

b 5

4
2
1

2
2
2

4
2
1

20
10
6

3
Aspect ratio, b

Fig. 6. Effects of the inhomogeneity parameter k for the coefcient of

linear thermal expansion on the critical buckling temperature a0 T 0cr and
the aspect ratio b under the heating condition (i).

Fig. 5. Effects of the degrees of freedom P; Q on the critical buckling temperature a0 T 0cr and the critical buckling mode.

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T. Morimoto et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 926937

933

[110 6 ]

[110 ]
400

1800

k = 0.0
Critical buckling temperature, 0T0cr

300

m = 1.5

250

m = 0.0
m = 0.5
m = 1.0

200

150

3
Aspect ratio, b

1200

900

600

300

m = 1.5

k = m = 0.0
b=1

1500

350

0
0.2

Fig. 7. Effects of the inhomogeneity parameter m for Youngs modulus on

the critical buckling temperature a0 T 0cr and the aspect ratio b under the
heating condition (i).

buckling phenomena are found elsewhere [27] which

include an alternative mathematical formulation, but we
do not discuss it any further. For the buckling modes, in
other words, we can realize a localized buckling mode by
making use of many degrees of freedom without the
alternative mathematical formulation.
Figs. 6 and 7 show the effect of inhomogeneity
parameters k; m and the variation of the aspect ratio b
on the critical buckling temperature a0 T 0cr under the
heating condition (i). The critical buckling temperatures

decrease for bt1:4

and increase for b\1:4
as the aspect
ratio is increased. In the order of magnitude O10
6 ,
however, the change of the critical buckling temperature is
very small in the range from b 1 to 5. The change of

tendency at b1:4
may be due to relative relation between
the heated region and the plate dimension because of the
following discussion: the heated region and the plate
dimension imply the magnitude of compressive force and
the tensile force from the results in Section 4.1, respectively. In the previous work [17], we have considered the
case of uniform temperature distribution in a
plane, in which the effect of the plate dimension is only
visible, and have found that the critical buckling
temperature decreases with increasing aspect ratio. On
the other hand, the effect of the heated region on the
critical buckling temperature is shown in Fig. 8. This is the
case where the aspect ratio is kept constant b 1
while varying the size of heated region with L from 0.2
to 0.8. From this gure, it is found that the critical
buckling temperature decreases with increasing the side L.

0.3

0.4

0.5
L

0.6

0.7

0.8

Fig. 8. Effect of the heated region with side L on the critical buckling
temperature a0 T 0cr P 4; Q 20.

[110 6 ]
350
m = 0.0
Critical buckling temperature, 0T0cr

Critical buckling temperature, T

0 0cr

m = 0.0

300

k = 0.0
k = 0.5
k = 1.0

250

k = 1.5
200

150

100

50
1

Aspect ratio, b
Fig. 9. Effects of the inhomogeneity parameter k for the coefcient of
linear thermal expansion on the critical buckling temperature a0 T 0cr and
the aspect ratio b under the heating condition (ii).

From the above two results, we conrm that the

heated region is dominant for bt1:4

and the plate

dimension is dominant for b\1:4

under the present
numerical example.

ARTICLE IN PRESS
T. Morimoto et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 926937

934

thermoelastic problem. Next we evaluated the critical

buckling temperatures with the predetermined in-plane
resultant forces as the generalized eigenvalue problem
which is constructed by using the Galerkin method.
Finally, we examined the effects of the inhomogeneity
parameters, aspect ratio, and heated region on the critical
buckling temperatures and then we had the following
results: under the heating condition (i), the heated region is

dominant for bt1:4

and the plate dimension is dominant

for b\1:4 for the present numerical example. Under the

heating condition (ii), the critical buckling temperatures
tend to decrease with increase in the inhomogeneity
In addition, the
parameters k; m and the aspect ratio b.
relative relation between the heated region and the plate
dimension does not affect the critical buckling temperatures under this condition.

[110 6 ]
350

Critical buckling temperature, 0T0cr

k = 0.0
300

m = 0.0
m = 0.5

250

m = 1.0
m = 1.5

200
m = 0.0
150
m = 1.5
100

50

3
Aspect ratio, b

Appendix A

Fig. 10. Effects of the inhomogeneity parameter m for Youngs modulus

on the critical buckling temperature a0 T 0cr and the aspect ratio b under the
heating condition (ii).

0
N

1
X

Fi; p; q; r; s

i1

4.2.2. Heating condition (ii)

Figs. 9 and 10 show the effects of the inhomogeneity
parameters k; m and the variation of the aspect ratio b on
the critical buckling temperature a0 T 0cr under the heating
condition (ii). In this case, we can consider the effect of the
aspect ratio on the critical buckling temperature without
the effect of the relative relation between the heated region
and the plate dimension. Fig. 9 shows the effects of the
inhomogeneity parameter k for the coefcient of linear
thermal expansion and the aspect ratio on the critical
buckling temperature. The critical buckling temperatures
monotonously decrease with increasing the inhomogeneity
Fig. 10 is the case due
parameter k and the aspect ratio b.
to the variation of the inhomogeneity parameter m. This
also show the same tendency as the inhomogeneity k affects
on the critical buckling temperatures.
5. Conclusion
We developed the thermal buckling analysis of functionally graded rectangular plates subjected to partial heating
in a plane and uniform temperature rise through its
thickness. The plate is simply supported for out-of-plane
deformation and perfectly clamped for in-plane deformation. It is assumed that the FGM properties such as the
coefcient of linear thermal expansion and Youngs
modulus are changed individually in the thickness direction
with the power law, while Poissons ratio is assumed to be
constant. Analytical developments are conducted at the
following two stages. We rst determined the distribution
of prebuckling in-plane resultant forces as a plane

1
X

Gj; p; q; r; s

j1

1 X
1
X

Hi; j; p; q; r; s,

i1 j1

F a2i fb2q C 2i
a2p C 2i 2C 3i gF 1 r; p; iG 3 s; q; i

b2q
a2p C 3i F 1 r; p; iG5 s; q; i
2ap bq C 2i C 3i F 2 r; p; iG 4 s; q; i
2ap bq C 3i F 2 r; p; iG6 s; q; i,
G b2j fa2p D2j
b2q D2j 2D3j gF 3 r; p; jG 1 s; q; j
a2p
b2q D3j F 5 r; p; jG1 s; q; j
2ap bq D2j D3j F 4 r; p; jG 2 s; q; j
2ap bq D3j F 6 r; p; jG2 s; q; j,
H f ij a2p b2j b2q a2i F 1 r; p; iG 1 s; q; j

2ap bq ai bj F 2 r; p; iG 2 s; q; j
in which
Z
F 1 r; p; i

1=2

cosar x
cosap x
cosai x
dx,



8
1 ai cos ar
>
>
> sinai =2 a
4a2
a2
>
>
i
i
r
>
>
>
>
< r p;

1=2

>
ar ap ai sinar =2 sinap =2 sinai =2
>
>

4
>
>
>
ar ap 2
a2i ar
ap 2
a2i 
>
>
>
:
rap;

ARTICLE IN PRESS
T. Morimoto et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 926937

1=2

cosar x
sinap x
sinai x
dx

F 2 r; p; i

1=2

8
ar cos ar sinai =2
>
>
>
2
>
>
4a2r
a2i
>
>
>
>
>
r p;
>
>
>
<
2 sinar =2 sinap =2 sinai =2
>
>
>
>
ar a2r
a2p
a2i
>
>

>
>
>
ar ap 2
a2i ar
ap 2
a2i 
>
>
>
>
: rap;
Z 1=2
F 3 r; p; j
cosar x
cosap x
coshbj x
dx,

1=2
8
"
#
>
bj cos ar
1
>
>
2
> sinhbj =2
>
>
b
bj 4a2r
>
j
>
>
>
>
<
r p;

>
ar ap bj sinar =2 sinhap =2 sinhbj =2
>
>
>
4
>
>
>
b2j ar ap 2 b2j ar
ap 2 
>
>
>
>
: rap;
Z 1=2
F 4 r; p; j
cosar x
sinap x
sinhbj x
dx,

cosar x
sinap xb
j x coshbj x
dx,

1=2

"
#
8
coshbj =2 4bj sinhbj =2
>
>
>
ar bj cos ar
2

>
>
>
bj 4a2r
b2j 4a2r 2
>
>
>
>
>
>
r p;
>
>
>
>
>
>
2bj sinar =2 sinap =2
>
>
>
>
(
>
>
2
2
2
>
>
1 ar ar
ap bj coshbj =2
>
< 
2 b2j ar ap 2 b2j ar
ap 2 

>
>
"
>
>
>
ar ap
>
>

bj sinhbj =2 2
>
>
>
b

ar ap 2 2
>
j
>
>
>
#)
>
>
>
>
a
r
ap
>
>
2
>
>
>
bj ar
ap 2 2
>
>
>
>
:
rap;
Z
G 1 s; q; j

1=2

8
ar cos ar sinhbj =2
>
>

2
>
>
>
b2j 4a2r
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> r p;
>
<
2 sinar =2 sinap =2 sinhbj =2
>
>
>
>
ar a2r
a2p b2j
>
>
>

>
>
>
b2j ar ap 2 b2j ar
ap 2 
>
>
>
>
: rap;
Z 1=2
F 5 r; p; j
cosar x
cosap xb
j x sinhbj x
dx,

1=2
8 (
>
1
>
>
bj 2 bj =2 coshbj =2
sinhbj =2
>
>
>
bj
>
>
>
>
>
>
1
>
>
>
bj =2 coshbj =2 cos ar
2
>
>
>
bj 4a2r
>
>
>
)
>
>
>
>
4a2r
b2j
>
>
2
sinhbj =2 cos ar
>
>
>
bj 4a2r 2
>
>
>
<
r p;

>
>
>
4ar ap bj sinar =2 sinap =2
>
>
>
>
(
>
>
>
>
sinhbj =2 bj =2 coshbj =2
>
>

>
>
>
b2j ar ap 2 b2j ar
ap 2 
>
>
>
>
)
>
>
2 2
2
2
>
4b
a

sinhb
=2
>
j
r
p
j
j
>
>

2
>
>
>
bj ar ap 2 2 b2j ar
ap 2 2
>
>
>
>
: rap;

1=2

F 6 r; p; j

b=2

cosbs y cosbq y cosbj y dy,

"
#
8

>
bj cosbs b
1
>

>


> sinbj b=2
>
>
bj
4b2s
b2j
>
>
>
>
>
< s q;

b=2

>

sinbq b=2
sinbj b=2
bs bq bj sinbs b=2
>
>
>

4
>
2
2
2
2
>
>
bs bq
bj bs
bq
bj 
>
>
>
>
: saq;
Z

G 2 s; q; j

b=2

b=2

cosbs y sinbq y sinbj y dy,

8
sinbj b=2

bs cosbs b
>
>
>

2
>
>
4b2s
b2j
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
s q;
>
>
<

sinbq b=2
sinbj b=2
2 sinbs b=2
>
>
>
>
bs b2s
b2q
b2j
>
>
>

>
>
>
bs bq 2
b2j bs
bq 2
b2j 
>
>
>
>
:
saq;
Z
G 3 s; q; i

b=2

cosbs y cosbq y coshai y dy,

b=2
8
"
#

>
b
1
a
cosb
>
i
s
>

sinhai b=2
2
>
>
2
>
ai
a

4b
>
i
s
>
>
>
>
< s q;
>

sinbq b=2
sinhai b=2
bs bq ai sinbs b=2
>
>
>
4
>
>
>
a2i bs bq 2 a2i bs
bq 2 
>
>
>
>
: saq;

935

ARTICLE IN PRESS
T. Morimoto et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 926937

936

Z
G 4 s; q; i

b=2

b=2

cosbs y sinbq y sinhai y dy,

[5] Thornton EA, Coyle MF, McLeod RN. Experimental study of plate
buckling induced by spatial temperature gradients. Journal of
Thermal Stresses 1994;17:191212.
[6] Ko WL. Thermal buckling analysis of rectangular panels subjected to
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[7] Hector Jr LG, Hetnarski R. Thermal stresses in materials due to laser
heating. In: Hetnarski R, editor. Thermal stresses, vol. IV.
Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996.
[8] Cisternas J, Holmes P, Kevrekidis IG. Buckling in response to
applied heat sources. Physica D 2003;177:71100.
[9] Mossakowski J. Buckling of a circular plate due to a concentrated heat source. Archiwum Mechaniki Stosowanej 1964;16:
102338.
[10] Bednarczyk H, Richter M. Buckling of plates due to self-equilibrated
thermal stresses. Journal of Thermal Stresses 1985;8:13952.
[11] Bargmann HW. Thermal buckling of elastic plates. Journal of
Thermal Stresses 1985;8:7198.
[12] Cheng ZQ, Kitipornchai S. Membrane analogy of buckling and
vibration of inhomogeneous plates. ASCE Journal of Engineering
Mechanics 1999;125:12937.
[13] Cheng ZQ, Batra RC. Exact correspondence between eigenvalues of
membranes and functionally graded simply supported polygonal
plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration 2000;229:87995.
[14] Javaheri R, Eslami MR. Thermal buckling of functionally graded
plates. AIAA Journal 2002;40:1629.
[15] Javaheri R, Eslami MR. Thermal buckling of functionally graded
based on higher order theory. Journal of Thermal Stresses
2002;25:60325.
[16] Najazadeh MM, Eslami MR. First-order-theory-based thermoelastic stability of functionally graded material circular plates. AIAA
Journal 2002;40:144450.
[17] Morimoto T, Tanigawa Y, Kawamura R. Thermal buckling analysis
of inhomogeneous rectangular plate due to uniform heat supply.
Journal of Thermal Stresses 2003;26:115170.
[18] Wu L. Thermal buckling of a simply supported moderately thick
rectangular FGM plate. Composite Structures 2004;64:2118.
[19] Liew KM, Yang J, Kitipornchai S. Thermal post-buckling of
laminated plates comprising functionally graded materials with
temperature-dependent properties. Journal of Applied Mechanics
2004;71:83950.

8
sinhai b=2

>
b cosbs b
>
>

2 s
>
2
>
2
>
ai 4bs
>
>
>
>
>
>
s q;
>
>
<

sinbq b=2
sinhai b=2
2 sinbs b=2
>
>
>
>
bs a2i b2s
b2s
>
>
>
 2
>
>
>
ai bs bq 2 a2i bs
bq 2 
>
>
>
>
: saq;
Z b=2

G 5 s; q; i
cosbs y cosbq y bi y sinhai y dy,

b=2
8 (
>
1
>
>

>
ai 2 ai b=2
coshai b=2

sinhai b=2
>
>
a
>
i
>
>
>
>
>
>
1
>

>
2
coshai b=2
cosbs b
ai b=2
>
>
>
ai 4b2s
>
>
>
)
>
>
>
>
4b2s
a2i
>

>
2
sinhai b=2 cosbs b
>
>
>
ai 4b2s 2
>
>
>
<
s q;

>
>

>
4ai bs bq sinbs b=2
sinbq b=2
>
>
>
>
(
>
>
>

>
ai b=2
coshai b=2
sinhai b=2
>
> 
>
2
>
2
2
>
ai bs bq ai bs
bq 2 
>
>
>
>
)
>
>

>
4a2i a2i b2s b2q sinhai b=2
>
>
>

2
>
>
ai bs bq 2 2 a2i bs
bq 2 2
>
>
>
>
>
: saq;
Z b=2

G 6 s; q; i
cosbs y sinbq y bi y coshai y dy,

b=2
"
#
8

>
b=2
b=2
cosha
4a
sinha
i
i
i
>

b
>
ai bs cosbs b

s q;
>
>
>
a2i 4b2s
a2i 4b2s 2
>
>
>
<

sinbq b=2
2ai sinbs b=2
>
>
(
"
#)
>
2
2
2
>

>
bs bq
bs
bq
b bs ai bs
bq coshai b=2
>
>

ai sinhai b=2 2


>
>
:
2 a2i bs bq 2 a2i bs
bq 2 
ai bs bq 2 2 a2i bs
bq 2 2

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