Wave propagation investigation of a porous sandwich FG plate under hygrothermal environments via a new first-order shear deformation theory

This study investigates the wave propagation in porous functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates subjected to hygrothermal environments. A new simple three-unknown first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) incorporating an integral term is utilized in this paper. Only three unknowns are used to formulate the governing differential equation by applying the Hamilton principle. The FG layer of the sandwich plate is modeled using the power-law function with evenly distributed porosities to represent the defects of the manufacturing process. The plate is subjected to nonlinear hygrothermal changes across the thickness. The effects of the power-law exponent, core to thickness ratios, porosity volume, and the relations between volume fraction and wave properties of porous FG plate under the hygrothermal environment are investigated. The results showed that the waves' phase velocities increase linearly with the waves number in the FGM plate. The porosity of the FG materials plate has a noticeable impact on the phase velocity when considering the high ratios of the core layer. It has a negligible effect on small core layers. Finally, it is observed that changing temperatures and moistures do not influence the relationship between the power law and the phase velocity.