Static and vibration analysis of isotropic and functionally graded sandwich plates using an edge-based MITC3 finite elements

Static and vibration analysis of isotropic and functionally graded sandwich plates using a higher-order shear deformation theory is presented in this paper. Lagrangian functional is used to derive the equations of motion. The mixed interpolation of tensorial components (MITC) approach and edge-based-strain technique is used to solve problems. A MITC3 three-node triangle element with 7 degree-of-freedoms per nodes that only requires the C0-type continuity is developed. Numerical results for isotropic and functionally graded sandwich plates with different boundary conditions are proposed to validate the developed theory and to investigate effects of material distribution, side-to-thickness ratio, thickness ratio of layers and boundary conditions on the deflection, stresses and natural frequencies of the plates.