Analytical solutions for the hygro-thermo-mechanical bending of FG beams using a new fifth order shear and normal deformation theory

Abstract

A new analytical solution is presented for functionally graded (FG) beams to investigate the bending behaviour under hygro-thermo-mechanical loading using a new fifth order shear and normal deformation theory (FOSNDT). The material properties of the FG beam are varied along the thickness direction according to the power law index. In the present theory, a polynomial shape function is expanded up to fifth-order in terms of thickness coordinate to consider the effects of transverse shear and normal deformations. The present theory is free from the shear correction factor. Using the Navier’s solution technique the closed-form solution is obtained for simply supported FG beams. All the results are presented in non-dimensional form and validated it by developing the classical beam theory (CBT), first order shear deformation theory (FSDT by Mindlin) and third order shear deformation theory (TSDT by Reddy) considering the hygro-thermo-mechanical loading effects which is mostly missing in the literature. It is noticed that the presented FOSNDT is very simple and accurate to predict the bending behaviour of FG beams under linear and non-linear hygro-thermo-mechanical loadings.