A comparison of buckling and postbuckling behavior of FGM plates with piezoelectric fiber reinforced composite actuators

Compressive postbuckling under thermal environments and thermal postbuckling due to a uniform temperature rise are presented for a simply supported, shear deformable functionally graded plate with piezoelectric fiber reinforced composite (PFRC) actuators. The material properties of functionally graded materials (FGMs) are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents, and the material properties of both FGM and PFRC layers are assumed to be temperature-dependent. The governing equations are based on a higher order shear deformation plate theory that includes thermo-piezoelectric effects. The initial geometric imperfection of the plate is taken into account. A two step perturbation technique is employed to determine buckling loads (temperature) and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the compressive and thermal postbuckling behaviors of perfect and imperfect, geometrically mid-plane symmetric FGM plates with fully covered or embedded PFRC actuators under different sets of thermal and electric loading conditions. The results for monolithic piezoelectric actuator, which is a special case in the present study, are compared with those of PFRC actuators. The results reveal that, in the compressive buckling case, the applied voltage usually has a small effect on the postbuckling load–deflection curves of the plate with PFRC actuators, whereas in the thermal buckling case, the effect of applied voltage is more pronounced for the plate with PFRC actuators, compared to the results of the same plate with monolithic piezoelectric actuators.