Hygrothermal bending analysis of a sector-shaped annular plate with variable radial thickness

This article is concerned with the hygrothermal bending response of the sector-shaped annular plate with variable radial thickness based on Kirchhoff plate theory. The variable radial thickness sector-shaped annular plate is imposed in a hygrothermal environment. The plate has varying radial thickness between the circular edges. The boundary conditions at the plate circular edges may be simply-supported or/and clamped. However, the straight radial edges of the sectorial annular plate are simply-supported. The analytical solutions for the bending response of hygrothermal sectorial annular plates are derived. The small parameter method and Levy-type approach are used for this purpose. The accuracy of the present model is demonstrated via problems for which the solutions and numerical results are available. Numerical results are presented for a variety of problems to serve as benchmark results for future comparisons with other investigators.