Thermo-mechanical postbuckling of symmetric S-FGM plates resting on Pasternak elastic foundations using hyperbolic shear deformation theory

In this work, an analytical formulation based on both hyperbolic shear deformation theory and stress function, is presented to study the nonlinear post-buckling response of symmetric functionally graded plates supported by elastic foundations and subjected to in-plane compressive, thermal and thermo-mechanical loads. Elastic properties of material are based on sigmoid power law and varying across the thickness of the plate (S-FGM). In the present formulation, Von Karman nonlinearity and initial geometrical imperfection of plate are also taken into account. By utilizing Galerkin procedure, closed-form expressions of buckling loads and post-buckling equilibrium paths for simply supported plates are obtained. The effects of different parameters such as material and geometrical characteristics, temperature, boundary conditions, foundation stiffness and imperfection on the mechanical and thermal buckling and post-buckling loading capacity of the S-FGM plates are investigated.