Analysis of the viscoelastic behavior of plates made of functionally graded materials

Considering the viscoelastic behavior of polymer foams, a new plate theory based on the direct approach is introduced and applied to plates composed of functionally graded materials (FGM). The governing two‐dimensional equations are formulated for a deformable surface and the stiffness parameters are identified for the linear viscoelastic isotropic material behavior. It is assumed that the material properties are changing in thickness direction. Solving the plate bending problem of the global mechanical analysis, it will be demonstrated that in some cases, the results significantly differ from the results based on the classical Kirchhoff‐type theory.