Dynamic stability analysis of FGM plates by the moving least squares differential quadrature method

The present paper investigates the dynamic stability of thick functionally graded material plates subjected to aero-thermo-mechanical loads, using a novel numerical solution technique, the moving least squares differential quadrature method. Temperature field is assumed to be a uniform distribution over the plate plane, and varied in the thickness direction only. Material properties are assumed to be temperature dependent and graded in the thickness direction in the simple power law manner. The equilibrium equations governing the dynamic stability of the plate are derived by the Hamilton’s principle, then these equations are discretized by the moving least squares differential quadrature method. The boundaries of the instability region are obtained using the principle of Bolotin’s method and are conveniently represented in the non-dimensional excitation frequency to load amplitude plane. The influence of various factors such as gradient index, temperature, mechanical and aerodynamic loads, thickness and aspect ratios, as well as the boundary conditions on the dynamic instability region are carefully studied.