Free Vibration Analysis of FG Porous Sandwich Plates under Various Boundary Conditions

In the present work, free vibration analysis of the square sandwich plate with functionally graded (FG) porous face sheets and isotropic homogenous core is performed under various boundary conditions. For this purpose, the material properties of the sandwich plate are supposed to vary continuously through the thickness direction according to the volume fraction of constituents defined with the modified rule of the mixture including porosity volume fraction with three different types of porosity distribution over the cross-section. Furthermore, a hyperbolic shear displacement theory is used in the kinematic relation of the FG porous sandwich plate, and the equations of motion are derived utilizing Hamilton’s principle. Analytical solutions are achieved for free vibration analysis of square sandwich plates with FG porous face sheets under various boundary conditions, i.e. combinations of clamped (C), simply supported (SS), and free (F) edges are presented. Several parametrical studies are conducted to examine the effects of porosity volume fraction, type of porosity distribution model, lay-up scheme, side to thickness ratio, and boundary conditions on the free vibration of the FG sandwich plates. Finally, it is concluded that the investigated parameters have significant effects on the free vibration of the FG sandwich plates and the negative effects of porosity may be reduced by adopting suitable values for said parameters, considerably.