Buckling analysis of functionally graded plates using HSDT in conjunction with the stress function method

In this article, the mechanical buckling analysis of simply-supported functionally graded plates is carried out using a higher shear deformation theory (HSDT) in conjunction with the stress function method. The proposed formulation is variationally consistent, does not use a shear correction factor and gives rise to a variation of transverse shear stress such that the transverse shear stresses vary parabolically through the thickness satisfying the surface conditions without stress of shear. The properties of the plate are supposed to vary across the thickness according to a simple power law variation in terms of volume fraction of the constituents of the material. Numerical results are obtained to study the influences of the power law index and the geometric ratio on the critical buckling load.