COMPOSITES

SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175
www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech

Second-order statistics of the elastic buckling of functionally

graded rectangular plates
J. Yang a, K.M. Liew b, S. Kitipornchai c,*

a
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia
b
Nanyang Centre for Supercomputing and Visualization, School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
c
Department of Building and Construction, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, PR China

Received 24 May 2004; received in revised form 1 November 2004; accepted 24 November 2004
Available online 18 January 2005

Abstract

The material properties of functionally graded materials (FGMs) possess inherent randomness due to their complicated fabrica-
tion process, in which the total control of various design parameters is often impossible. The present work investigates the effect of
this randomness on the elastic buckling of FGM rectangular plates which are resting on an elastic foundation and subjected to uni-
form in-plane edge compressions. The interaction between the plate and foundation is included in the formulation with a two-
parameter Pasternak model. The elastic material properties (including the YoungÕs modulus and PoissonÕs ratio of each constituent
material) and the foundation stiffness parameters are modeled as independent random variables. First-order shear deformation plate
theory and a mean-centered first-order perturbation procedure are used to examine the stochastic characteristics of the buckling
load. Typical results are presented for plates with aluminum/zirconia two-phase functionally graded material to show the influence
of variation in material constants and foundation stiffness parameters, volume fraction index, edge in-plane forces, side-to-thickness
ratio, and plate aspect ratio on the second-order statistics of buckling loads.

2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: C. Buckling; Rectangular plate

1. Introduction most commonly used FGMs are the two-phase materials

A new class of advanced inhomogeneous composite
materials that are composed of two or more phases with
different material properties and continuously varying
composition distribution has been developed. They are
referred to as functionally graded materials (FGMs).
FGMs were introduced as to take advantage of the de-
sired material properties of each constituent material
without an abrupt change in the effective properties
which may result in so-called Ôinterface problemsÕ. The
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2788 8028; fax: +852 2788
7612.
E-mail address: bcskit@cityu.edu.hk (S. Kitipornchai).
that are compositionally graded from a refractory cera-
mic to a ductile metal, such as ZrO2–Al, ZrO2–Ni,
Si3N4–steel, and ZrO2–steel.
FGMs offer great promise in a wide range of engi-
neering applications as ideal materials with optimal per-
formance. Rapid advances in the manufacturing
techniques of bulk FGMs have created exciting new
possibilities for their application in large-scale structural
systems such as rocket heat shields, wear-resistant lin-
ings in the mineral processing industry, thermoelectric
generators, plasma facings for fusion reactors, and elec-
trically insulating metal/ceramic joints, to name but a
few. A number of fabrication processes for bulk FGMs
have been reported [1], which have mostly involved a

0266-3538/$ - see front matter
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compscitech.2004.11.012
1166 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175
controlled segregation approach, that is, the separating
of a mixture of metal and ceramic powders into a graded
profile on the basis of density. Segregation is a slow pro-
cess with poor gradient control, because segregation
rates largely depend on the particle size and morphology
of the raw materials used. This inevitably creates uncer-
tainties in the effective material properties of an FGM,
which in turn leads to randomness in the structural re-
sponses of the FGM components. Hence, deterministic
analysis cannot provide complete information on struc-
tural responses.
Over the last decade, there has been considerable
interest in a broad range of research subjects concerning
the macro-mechanical behavior of FGMs [1] and a few
investigations have reported on the buckling and post-
buckling of FGM plates and shells. Based on classical
plate theory (CPT), Feldman and Aboudi [2] studied
the optimization of buckling load for symmetrically
laminated plates containing FGMs, with effective mate-
rial properties being the function of spatial coordinates
(x, y, z). Javaheri and Eslami [3] presented an analytical
buckling solution for simply supported FGM rectangu-
lar thin plates under compressive in-plane forces. Najafi-
zadeh and Eslami studied the elastic buckling of circular
FGM plates that are subjected to uniform compression
in radial direction [4] and three types of thermal loads
[5]. Closed-form solutions were given for FGM plates
with simply supported edges. Ma and Wang [6] solved
the axisymmetric bending and the buckling of FGM cir-
cular plates based on the third-order shear deformation
theory (TSDT). Relationship between the TSDT results
for FGM plates and the CPT results for isotropic plates
were discussed. In the area of non-linear analysis where
geometric nonlinearity is involved, Yang and Shen [7]
carried out a post-buckling analysis for FGM rectangu-
lar thin plates under a combination of transverse and
in-plane loads and resting/not resting on an elastic foun-
dation. A two-parameter model was used to represent
the plate–foundation interaction, and results were pre-
sented for plates with general boundary conditions.
Within the framework of TSDT, Liew et al. [8] investi-
gated the buckling and post-buckling behavior of
FGM laminated plates that are integrated with sur-
face-mounted piezoelectric actuators, and recently ex-
tended their work to the thermal buckling and thermal
post-buckling problems of FGM plates with tempera-
ture-dependent material properties undergoing uniform
temperature change [9]. In the field of FGM shell struc-
tures, Shen conducted a series of studies on the post-
buckling of axially loaded FGM cylindrical panels [10]
and cylindrical shells [11] and pressure loaded FGM
cylindrical panels [12] and cylindrical shells [13]. Com-
prehensive TSDT-based results were provided for shell
structures in thermal environments. Although much
has been done on predicting the buckling characteristics
of composite plates with various system uncertainties
(see, for example [14–22]), no work dealing with the sto-
chastic buckling behaviour of FGM structures has been
reported. All of the aforementioned works on FGMs are
virtually deterministic since they did not account for the
inherent randomness in the structures and assumed that
all of the system parameters are completely determinate.
In this study, we investigate the buckling characteris-
tics of functionally graded plates that are supported by
an elastic medium in the presence of small random vari-
ations in system variables, taking into account the trans-
verse shear strains using the first-order shear
deformation theory (FSDT). The elastic moduli and
PoissonÕs ratios of the constituent materials and the
foundation supporting stiffness parameters are treated
as independent random variables. The two-dimensional
differential quadrature approach and the mean-centered
first-order perturbation technique are employed to
determine the second-order statistics (mean and stan-
dard deviation) of the buckling load parameters of
clamped FGM plates under uniaxial or biaxial edge
compression. The numerical results present the effects
of material properties, foundation parameters, volume
fraction index, and plate geometry on the mean buckling
load and its dispersion with respect to various random
variables.
2. Formulations
2.1. Governing equations
Consider a functionally graded rectangular plate of
length a, width b and total thickness h, defined in the
(x, y, z) coordinate system with x- and y-axes located
in the middle plane and its origin placed at the corner
of the plate.
Let ðU
; V
; W

Þ be the displacements parallel to the
(x, y, z) axes, respectively. The plate is supposed to be at-
tached to the foundation so that no separation takes
place in the process of deformation. The interaction be-
tween the plate and the supporting foundation follows
the two-parameter model (Pasternak-type) as
p ¼
k 1 W



k 2 r2 W

; ð1Þ
where p is the foundation reaction per unit area, the La-
place differential operator $2 = o2/ox2 + o2/oy2, and

k 1 and
k 2 are the foundation stiffnesses. This model sim-
ply reduces to the Winkler type when
k 2 ¼ 0.
It is assumed that the material composition in an
FGM plate varies in the thickness direction only, such
that the top surface z = h/2 is ceramic-rich and the bot-
tom surface z =
h/2 is metal-rich. The effective mate-
rial properties at an arbitrary point within the plate
domain, such as YoungÕs modulus E and PoissonÕs ra-
tiom, are therefore position dependent and can be ex-
pressed as
 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175 1167

ðE; mÞ ¼ ðEc ; mc ÞV c þ ðEm ; mm ÞV m ; ð2Þ oM xy oM yy

þ
Qyy ¼ 0: ð11Þ
where the subscript Ôc Õ refers to ceramic, and Ôm Õ refers ox oy
to metal, Vc and Vm are the ceramic and metal volume
xx ; N
In Eqs. (7)–(11), N
yy ; N

xy are the membrane stres-
fractions which follow a power law distribution as ses due to applied edge forces, and the stress resultants

n
2Z þ h are defined as
Vc ¼ ; V m ¼ 1
V c: ð3Þ
2h 8 9 2 3 8 e0 9
> N xx > A11 A12 0 B11 B12 0 > > xx >
>
>
> > > >
The non-negative volume fraction index n defines the > N yy >
> > 6 0
> A22 0 B12 B22 7 >
0 7> yy >
>
> e 0 >
>
>
> >
> 6 >
composition profile in the plate thickness, and may be >
< > 6 7>> 0 >
>
N xy = 6 0 0 A66 0 0 B66 7 exy =
<
optimized to the desired performance. The linear consti- ¼66
7 ;
tutive relations for the FGMs in the plane stress state >
>
>
M xx >
>
> 6 D11 D12 0 77>> exx >
>
1
>
>
>
> >
> 6 7> 1 >
are >
>
> M yy >
>
>
4 sym: D22 0 5> >
>
> eyy >
>
>
>
8 9 2 38 9 : ; >
: >
;
> rxx > Q11 Q12 0 0 0 > exx > M xy D66 1
exy
>
> >
> >
> >
>
> > 6
> 7> >
> >
>
>
< r >
= 6 6 Q Q 0 0 0 7> e > ð12aÞ
7< =
yy 12 22 yy

ryz ¼ 6 06 0 Q44 0 7
0 7 eyz ; ð4Þ     
>
> >
> 6 7>
> >
> Qyy A44 A45 eyz
>
> r >
> 4 0 0 0 Q 0 5>
> e >
> ¼ ; ð12bÞ
>
> zx >
> 55 >
> zx >
: ; : > ; Qxx A45 A55 ezx
rxy 0 0 0 0 Q66 exy
where
where rxx, ryy, ryz, rzx, rxy are the stress components,
8 0 9 8 oU 9 8 1 9 8 oux 9
exx, eyy, eyz, ezx, exy are the strain components and Qij > >
< exx >
> < ox >
= > = < exx >
> = >
< ou ox >
=
are the stiffness coefficients. 0
eyy ¼ oV 1
eyy ¼ y
oy ; oy :
The kinematic relations relating the strains to the dis- : 0 >
> : oV oU >
; > ; : 1 >
> ; >
> >
>

; V
; W

Þ are exy þ oy exy : ouy ou ;
placements ðU ox þ x ox oy
8 9 2 o
3
> exx > ox
0 0 ð13Þ
>
> >
> 6 78 9
>
> >
> 6 0 oyo 0 7> U
Aij, Bij, Dij are the stiffness coefficients of the plate
< eyy >
> = 6 7< > =
60 o o 7
Z h=2
eyz ¼ 6 oz oy 7 V : ð5Þ
>
> >
> 6 7>:
>; ðAij ; Bij ; Dij Þ ¼ Qij ð1; z; z2 Þ dz ði; j ¼ 1; 2; 6Þ;
>
> >
ezx > 6 o o 7
>
> > 4 oz 0 ox 5 W
: >

h=2
;
exy o
oy
o
ox
0 ð14aÞ
According to the first-order shear deformation plate the- Z h=2
ory, the displacement fields are assumed to take the Aij ¼ k i k j Qij dz ði; j ¼ 4; 5Þ; ð14bÞ

h=2
form of
8 9 8 9 8 9 where k 24 ¼ 5=6; k 25 ¼ 5=6 are shear correction fac-


<U >
> = > < U ðx; yÞ >= < ux ðx; yÞ >
> = tors to account for the effect of transverse shear
V
¼ V ðx; yÞ þ z uy ðx; yÞ ; ð6Þ strains.
:
>
> ; > : >
; >
: >
;
W W ðx; yÞ 0 In this paper, we consider the elastic buckling of
FGM plates subjected to uniform edge compressive
where (U, V, W) represent the displacements at z = 0 in loads Px in the x-direction and Py in the y-direction.
the x-, y- and z-axes and (ux,uy) are the rotations of the Substituting Eqs. (12) and (13) into equilibrium equa-
cross-sections perpendicular to the y- and x-axes. tions (7)–(11) and introducing the following dimension-
The equations of equilibrium can be derived using the less quantities:
variational principal as follows:
oN xx oN xy n ¼ x=a; g ¼ y=b; b ¼ a=b; l ¼ h=a;
þ ¼ 0; ð7Þ  
ox oy ðu; v; wÞ ¼ ðU ; V ; W Þ=h; ðk 1 ; k 2 Þ ¼
k 1 a2 ;
k 2 =A11 ;
ðc1 ; c2 ; c3 ; c4 Þ ¼ ðA44 =A11 ; A55 =A11 ; A44 a2 =D11 ; A55 a2 =D11 Þ;
oN xy oN yy
þ ¼ 0; ð8Þ ðc13 ; c14 ; c15 Þ ¼ ðA22 ; A66 ; A12 þ A66 Þ=A11 ;
ox oy
ðc21 ; c23 ; c24 ; c25 Þ ¼ ðB11 ; B22 ; B66 ; B12 þ B66 Þ=A11 h;
oQxx oQyy
o2 W 2

xy o W þ N
2

yy o W ¼ p; ðc31 ; c33 ; c34 ; c35 Þ ¼ ðB11 ; B22 ; B66 ; B12 þ B66 Þh=D11 ;
þ þ N xx 2 þ 2N ð9Þ
ox oy ox oxoy oy 2 ðc43 ; c44 ; c45 Þ ¼ ðD22 ; D66 ; D12 þ D66 Þ=D11 ;
oM xx oM xy ðkx ; ky Þ ¼ ðP x ; P y Þ=A11 ;
þ
Qxx ¼ 0; ð10Þ
ox oy ð15Þ
1168 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175

the governing equations can be expressed in dimension- 2.2. Eigenvalue equation

less form as
The differential quadrature method (DQM), which
o2 u o2 u o2 v o2 u o2 u possesses higher-order interpolation characteristics, is
þ b2 c14 2 þ c15 b þ c21 2x þ b2 c24 2x
on 2
og on og on og used to establish the buckling eigenvalue equation. Its
2 basic idea is to approximate an unknown function and
o uy
þ c25 b ¼ 0; ð16Þ its partial derivatives with respect to a spatial variable
on og at a given discrete point as a weighted linear sum of
the function values at all discrete points in the solution
o2 u o2 v o2 v o2 ux o2 u y
c15 b þ c14 2 þ b2 c13 2 þ c25 b þ c24 2 domain of that variable, e.g., for a two-dimensional
on og on og on og on function f(n,g) defined in the n
g coordinates,
o2 uy Nn X
X Ng
þ b2 c23 ¼ 0; ð17Þ
og2 f ðn; gÞ ffi ln ðnÞlg ðgÞf ðni ; gj Þ; ð23Þ
i¼1 j¼1



o2 w oux o2 w ouy
k 25 c2l 2þ 2
þ k 4 c1 b lb 2 þ XNn XNg
on on og og orþs f ðn; gÞ ðrÞ ðsÞ

2 ffi C n;ik C g;jm f ðnk ; gm Þ; ð24Þ
2 
2 2  onr ogs n¼ni
ow ow ow 2o w k¼1 m¼1
þ lk0 sx 2 þ b2 sy 2
lk 1 w þ lk 2 þ b g¼gj
on og on2 og2
where Nn and Ng are the number of spacing grid points
¼ 0; ð18Þ
distributed in the n
and g
axes, ln and lg are the
ðrÞ
higher-order interpolation polynomials and C n;ik and
o2 u o2 u o2 v o2 u o2 u ðrÞ
c31 2
þ b2 c34 2 þ c35 b þ 2x þ b2 c44 2x C g;jm are the weighting coefficients that are dependent
on og on og on og on the grid point distribution only, the detailed deriva-
2

o uy ow tion of which can be found in the literature [23,24].
þ c45 b
k 25 c4 þ ux ¼ 0; ð19Þ By using the standard DQM approximation in the
on og on
partial differential governing equations (16)–(20) and
o2 u o2 v o2 v o2 ux o2 u y the boundary conditions (21) and (22), a linear eigen-
c35 b þ c34 2 þ b2 c33 2 þ c45 b þ c44 2 value system is obtained in terms of unknown function
on og on og on og on
2
 values at all grid points
o uy ow
þ b2 c43 2
k 24 c3 þ uy ¼ 0; ð20Þ
      
og og K11 K12 V11 0 X1 0

kcr ¼ ; ð25Þ
K21 K22 0 0 X2 0
where sx = kx/k0, sy = ky/k0, and k0 is the magnitude.
As pointed out in our previous work [8,9], an FGM or in compact form as
plate is unable to remain flat in the presence of in-plane ðK
kcr VÞX ¼ 0; ð26Þ
forces of any magnitude due to the bending–stretching
where Kij and V11 are constant matrices, X1 = WT,
coupling and therefore does not exhibit bifurcational
X2 = [U,V,ux,uy]T, U, V, W, ux and uy are unknown
buckling under edge compression unless it is fully
vectors composed of uij, vij, wij, uxij, uyij (i = 1, . . . ,Nn,
clamped. The out-of-plane boundary conditions for a
j = 1, . . . ,Ng), respectively.
plate clamped at four edges require that

wð0; gÞ ¼ ux ð0; gÞ ¼ uy ð0; gÞ ¼ wð1; gÞ ¼ ux ð1; gÞ

3. Perturbation technique
¼ uy ð1; gÞ ¼ 0;
ð21Þ
wðn; 0Þ ¼ ux ðn; 0Þ ¼ uy ðn; 0Þ ¼ wðn; 1Þ ¼ ux ðn; 1Þ Typical FGMs are made of ceramic and metal, which
¼ uy ðn; 1Þ ¼ 0: have remarkably different material properties. The fabri-
cation and manufacturing are complicated processes
and may involve a lot of uncertainties. Therefore, the
The plate is considered to be fully movable so that in-
material properties of an FGM are random in nature.
plane displacements in both normal and tangential
In the following analysis, the elastic constants (YoungÕs
directions are allowed. The associated in-plane bound-
modulus and PoissonÕs ratio) of each constituent mate-
ary conditions are
rial are treated as independent random variables. Since
N xx ð0; gÞ ¼ N xx ð1; gÞ ¼ kx ; N yy ðn; 0Þ ¼ N yy ðn; 1Þ ¼ ky ; the foundation stiffness parameters are totally depen-
dent on the material properties of the supporting elastic
N xy ð0; gÞ ¼ N xy ð1; gÞ ¼ 0; N xy ðn; 0Þ ¼ N xy ðn; 1Þ ¼ 0:
medium which may possess random fluctuations, ran-
ð22Þ domness in both
k 1 and
k 2 is taken into consideration
 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175 1169

as well. The volume fraction index, however, is a con- equations can be converted into standard eigenvalue
stant since it is a design parameter. Consequently, kcr, equations as
Kij, V11, X1, and X2 in Eq. (25) are random.
We consider a class of problems where the random ^ d Xd ¼ kd Xd ;
K ð33Þ
11 1 cr 1
variation is small as compared to the mean part of a ran-
dom variable. The mean-centered perturbation tech- ^ d Xr þ K
K ^ r X d ¼ kd X r þ kr X d ; ð34Þ
11 1 11 1 cr 1 cr 1
nique is used to predict the second-order statistics of
the buckling loads of FGM rectangular plates. where
In general, any arbitrary random variable bk can be
^ d ¼ ðV

d Þ
1 K

d ; ^ r ¼ ðV

d Þ
1 ðK

r
V ^d

r K
represented as the sum of its mean and zero mean ran- K 11 11 11 K 11 11 11 11 11 Þ: ð35Þ
dom part, denoted by superscripts ÔdÕ and ÔrÕ,
The mean value of the buckling load can be obtained as
respectively,
the lowest eigenvalue of Eq. (33) by using conventional
bk ¼ bdk þ brk : ð27Þ eigenvalue solution algorithms. The eigenvectors, after
being properly normalized, form a complete orthonor-
Similarly, all of the quantities in Eq. (25) can be split
mal basis and any vector in the space can be expressed
into
as a linear combination of these eigenvectors. Making
kcr ¼ kdcr þ krcr ; Kij ¼ Kdij þ Krij ; use of this orthogonality condition [25] in solving Eq.
(34) yields
V11 ¼ Vd11 þ Vr11 ; X1 ¼ Xd1 þ Xr1 ; ð28Þ
X2 ¼ Xd2 þ Xr2 : ^ r ÞXd ; X
krcr ¼ ððK ~ d Þ=ðXd ; X
~ d Þ; ð36Þ
11 1 1 1 1

Expanding the random parts in TaylorÕs series, keeping where ~d

X is the eigenvector of ^ d ÞT ,
ðK
in other words, the
1 11
the first-order terms and neglecting the second- and left eigenvector of K ^d .
11
higher-order terms since earlier studies [18,21,22] have As the random variables are independent of each
concluded that the first-order approximation is sufficient other, Eq. (34) can be solved for each random vari-
to yield results with desired accuracy for problems with able, and the variation in the buckling load with re-
low variability, we have spect to an individual random variable bk can now
be written as
X okd X oKdij

^ d  
krcr ¼ 0 r
b; Krij ¼ br ; oK11 d ~d
k
obk k k
obk k d
okcr obk
X1 ; X 1
¼ : ð37Þ
X oVd X oXd obk d ~d
ðX ; X Þ
Vr11 ¼ 11 r
bk ; Xr1 ¼ 1 r
bk ; ð29Þ 1 1
ob k ob k
k k Finally, the variance for the buckling load is evaluated
X oXd by
Xr2 ¼ 2 r
bk : " #
k
ob k X okd X okd
cr r cr r
Varðkcr Þ ¼ E b b
Putting the approximation into Eq. (25), equating the j¼1
obj j k¼1 obk k
coefficients of the zero- and first-order powers of brk , X X okd okd

and then conducting the condensation process, we ob- ¼ cr cr
Cov brj ; brk ; ð38Þ
obj obk
tain the zeroth- and the first-order generalized eigen- j¼1 k¼1

value systems
where E[ ] stands for expectation and Cov( ) is the cross

d
ðK

d ÞXd
kdcr V ¼ 0; ð30Þ covariance between brj and brk . The standard deviation
11 11 1
(SD) is obtained as the square root of the variance.
d


kd V

r d

d
rd r
r d d The above solution method, although presented for
ðK11 cr 11 ÞX1 þ ðK11
kcr V11 ÞX1 ¼ kcr V11 X1 ; ð31Þ
FGM plates with fully clamped edges only, is quite gen-
in which eral and is applicable to the buckling problems of certain

d ¼ Kd þ Kd Sd ; V
d ¼ Vd ; types of plates under more general boundary conditions
K 11 11 12 21 11 11 which are able to remain flat up to the bifurcation point
d
1 d r


S21 ¼
ðK22 Þ K21 ; K11 ¼ K11 þ Kr12 Sd21 þ Kd12 Kr21 ;
d r ð32Þ unless there is initial geometric imperfection. These in-

r ¼ Vr :
V clude isotropic plates, orthotropic plates and composite
11 11
laminated plates with symmetric cross-ply, symmetric
Note that Eq. (30) is the zeroth-order equation which in- angle-ply with more than 15 plies, and antisymmetric
volves mean quantities only and therefore represents the angle-ply layer-up schemes. In such cases, only the
deterministic part of the analysis, whereas the first-order out-of-plane boundary conditions (21) should be chan-
equation (31) corresponds to the random part. These ged accordingly.
1170 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175

4. Numerical results made of graphite/epoxy composite with the following

mean values of material properties: E11 = 181.0
To establish the validity of the present methodology, GPa,E22 = 10.3 GPa, G12 = 7.17 GPa, m12 = 0.28.
three illustrative examples are solved and the results Fig. 1 plots the standard deviation of buckling load
are compared with the existing ones available in the liter-
ature. Table 1 lists the dimensionless mean buckling load
parameter kcr = Pxb2/p2D for clamped isotropic square
plates (m = 0.3, a/h = 10,20) under uniaxial and equal 0.6 : Present
biaxial edge compression with a refined spacing grid : Salim et al. [18]
and the solutions given by Wang et al. [26] using the
p-Ritz method for direct comparison. It can be seen that,
although the present results do not exhibit a monotonic 0.5
convergence, the grid system of Nn · Ng = 10 · 10 is suf-
ficient to yield convergent and accurate results. A similar 10%

SD, λ0
comparison is also made in Table 2 between the mean 0.4
buckling load parameters kcr = Px b2/p2D0 for clamped
FGM rectangular plates (a/h = 20) obtained by the pres-
ent method using Nn · Ng = 10 · 10 and the HSDPT-
based semi-analytical approach [8]. The plate is made 0.3
of a mixture of aluminum (Al) and zirconia (ZrO2) with
the mean values of material constants being Em = 70 5%
GPa, mm = 0.3 for aluminum and Ec = 151 GPa,
0.2
mc = 0.3 for zirconia. Excellent agreement is achieved.
In another part of validation, the present approach is
applied to evaluate the variation in the buckling load of 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
a simply supported, symmetrically cross-ply [0/90]s a/b

rectangular plate (a/h = 100) subjected to a uniaxial Fig. 1. Standard deviation of buckling load against plate aspect ratio
compressive edge force (sx = 1, sy = 0). The plate is for simply supported [0/90]s rectangular plates.

Table 1
Mean buckling load parameterkcr = Pxb2/p2D for clamped isotropic square plates
Source Uniaxial compression Biaxial compression
a/h = 20 a/h = 10 a/h = 20 a/h = 10
Nn · Ng = 7 · 7 3.4245 3.0481 3.2976 2.9407
Nn · Ng = 9 · 9 9.6253 8.4300 5.1369 4.5980
Nn · Ng = 10 · 10 9.3904 8.2563 5.0776 4.5303
Nn · Ng = 11 · 11 9.3919 8.2578 5.0804 4.5325
Wang et al. [26] 9.5526 8.2733 5.0840 4.5400

Table 2
Mean buckling load parameter kcr = Pxb2/p2D0 for clamped FGM rectangular plates
Material composition Source Uniaxial compression Biaxial compression
a/b = 1.0 a/b = 2.0 a/b = 1.0 a/b = 2.0
Zirconia Present 9.4035 4.6219 5.0890 3.5161
Liew et al. [8] 9.3922 4.6125 5.0789 3.5072
n = 0.2 Present 7.6595 3.7412 4.1497 2.8835
Liew et al. [8] 7.6484 3.7346 4.1413 2.8762
n = 2.0 Present 6.0621 3.0900 3.2775 2.2622
Liew et al. [8] 6.0544 3.0833 3.2711 2.2568
n = 5.0 Present 5.6863 2.8141 3.0702 2.1043
Liew et al. [8] 5.6770 2.8074 3.0658 2.0998
Aluminum Present 4.3589 2.1436 2.3597 1.6300
Liew et al. [8] 4.3544 2.1383 2.3545 1.6258
 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175 1171

parameter k0 = Px b2/4D22 versus plate aspect ratio a/b
as the normalized standard deviation (SD/mean) of all
of the material properties reaches 5% and 10%. The
dashed lines represent the results that Salim et al. [18]
obtained by using CPT and the first-order perturbation
procedure. Our results agree reasonably well with the
existing results.
In the following numerical examples, second-order
statistics of buckling load are presented for uniformly
compressed, clamped FGM rectangular plates that
are made of aluminum and zirconia and are resting
on an elastic foundation. The mean buckling loads
are shown in Table 3, where D0 = D11 of an isotropic
ZrO2 plate with h = 0.01 m. The influence of the scat-
tering in the material properties and foundation stiff-
ness parameters on the buckling load is examined in
Figs. 2–7 by varying the SD/mean of random variables
from 0% to 14%.
Table 3 gives the mean values of the buckling load
kcr = Pxb2/p2D0 for FGM square plates under uniaxial
compression along the x-axis (sx = 1, sy = 0), and equal
biaxial compression (sx = sy = 1). Results are given for
plates with side-to-thickness ratio a/h = 10, 25 that are
made of isotropic aluminum and zirconia and graded
materials with volume fraction index n = 0.2, 2.0, 8.0.
Amongst the three foundation cases considered,
(k1 = 0.5, k2 = 0.05) and (k1 = 0.5, k2 = 0.00) corre-
spond to the Pasternak-type and the Winkler-type
foundation, respectively, whereas (k1 = k2 = 0.00) indi-
cates that no elastic foundation is attached to the plate.
As expected, the buckling load shows a substantial in-
crease as the plate becomes thicker, and decreases
when the volume fraction percentage of higher modu-
lus zirconia declines with an increase in volume frac-
tion index n. The effect of the supporting elastic
foundation is to effectively enhance the buckling load
carrying capacity of the plate. However, the difference
between the buckling loads for the plates resting on a
Winkler-type foundation and a Pasternak-type founda-
tion is not prominent.
Figs. 2–7 display the scattering of dimensionless
buckling load of graded rectangular plates (n = 0.2,
2.0, 8.0) against the SD/mean in various random vari-
ables. Figs. 2(a)–(d) and 3 depict the effect of random-
ness in individual material properties and foundation
stiffness parameters on the dispersion of the buckling
load. Figs. 4–7 demonstrate the variation in the buckling
load with all of the random material properties of con-
stituent materials changing simultaneously. Unless
otherwise stated, the plate is of side-to-thickness ratio
a/h = 10 and aspect ratio a/b = 1.0, and is supported
by an elastic medium with foundation parameters
k1 = 0.5, k2 = 0.05. The solid line, the dashed line and
the dotted line represent the results for graded plates
with n = 0.2, 2.0, 8.0, respectively. As shown by the
numerical results, the buckling load dispersion of
FGM plates exhibits linear variation with the random
variables.
The buckling load sensitivity for the uniaxially com-
pressed (sx = 1, sy = 0) graded plates with varying stan-
dard deviations of YoungÕs moduli Ec and Em,
PoissonÕs ratios mc and mm, are examined individually
in Figs. 2(a)–(d) (i.e., with only one random variable
changing at a time). The effects of the material proper-
ties of zirconia (Ec and mc) on the buckling load disper-
sion decreases as n increases, whereas those of aluminum
(Em and mm) influence the buckling load dispersion in an
opposite manner. Compared to the variation in Em, the
random change in Ec has a dominant effect on the buck-
ling load because its mean value is more than twice that
of Em. The effects of randomness in PoissonÕs ratios are
insignificant.
For the same FGM plates, Fig. 3 examines the influ-
ence of scattering in foundation stiffness parameters k1
and k2. The material properties of the constituent mate-
rials are kept constant. In such a case, the buckling load
becomes more sensitive to the variations in k1 and k2 as
their mean values increase.
Fig. 4 evaluates the effect of the elastic foundation
type on the buckling load dispersion of graded plates

Table 3
Mean buckling load parameter kcr = Pxb2/p2D0 for clamped FGM square plates resting on an elastic foundation
a/h Material composition Uniaxial compression Biaxial compression
k1 = 0.50, k1 = 0.50, k1 = 0.00, k1 = 0.50, k1 = 0.50, k1 = 0.00,
k2 = 0.05 k2 = 0.00 k2 = 0.00 k2 = 0.05 k2 = 0.00 k2 = 0.00
10 Zirconia 8.5542 7.9384 8.0408 7.4315 6.8235 4.5736
n = 0.2 7.0513 6.5030 6.5961 6.2727 5.7313 3.7600
n = 2.0 5.7123 5.3172 5.2788 4.7812 4.3907 2.9400
n = 8.0 4.8925 4.5680 4.6578 4.1809 3.8608 2.6649
Aluminum 3.9655 3.6801 3.7275 3.4451 3.1632 2.1202
25 Zirconia 0.9877 0.7405 0.6199 0.8997 0.6565 0.3295
n = 0.2 0.8121 0.5919 0.5068 0.7321 0.5156 0.2684
n = 2.0 0.6636 0.5048 0.3976 0.5926 0.4364 0.2124
n = 8.0 0.5747 0.4446 0.3672 0.5396 0.4116 0.1953
Aluminum 0.4579 0.3433 0.2874 0.4171 0.3044 0.1528
1172 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175

0.08 0.035

uniaxial compression
0.030
uniaxial compression
a/b = 1.0, a/h = 10
0.06 (k1,k2)=(0.5, 0.05)
0.025 a/b = 1.0, a/h = 10
(k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.05)

SD/Mean, λcr
0.020
SD/Mean, λcr

0.04
0.015

: n = 0.2
: n = 0.2 0.010
: n = 2.0
0.02 : n = 2.0 : n = 8.0
: n = 8.0
0.005

0.000
0.00 0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
(a) SD/Mean, Ec (b) SD/Mean, Em

0.0025 0.0025

uniaxial compression
uniaxial compression
0.0020 0.0020
a/b = 1.0, a/h = 10
(k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.05) a/b = 1.0, a/h = 10
(k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.05)
0.0015 0.0015
SD/Mean, λcr

SD/Mean λcr

0.0010 0.0010

: n = 0.2 : n = 0.2
: n = 2.0 : n = 2.0
0.0005 : n = 8.0 : n = 8.0
0.0005

0.0000 0.0000
0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15 0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
(c) SD/Mean, νc (d) SD/Mean, νm

Fig. 2. Dispersion of the buckling load of clamped FGM square plates resting on elastic foundations: (a) with respect to Ec; (b) with respect to Em;
(c) with respect to mc; (d) with respect to mm.

under equal biaxial edge compression with all of the ran-
dom material properties Ec, Em, mc, mm varying simulta-
neously. The foundation stiffness parameters are kept
constant at their mean values. The line groups 1, 2
and 3 are for the cases (k1 = k2 = 0.00),
(k1 = 0.5, k2 = 0.00), and (k1 = 0.5, k2 = 0.05), respec-
tively. The results show that presence of an elastic foun-
dation leads to a significant reduction in the variation in
the buckling load. The SD/mean of the buckling load of
the graded plates that are resting on a Pasternak-type
foundation is only around 30% of that of the plates
without supporting foundations.
Fig. 5 compares the buckling load variation of graded
plates under different edge loading conditions. To this
end, the results for plates subjected to uniaxial compres-
sion and equal biaxial compression are presented and
marked as groups 1 and 2, respectively. The random
variables Ec, Em, mc, mm are assumed to undergo a simul-
taneous change. The buckling loads of uniaxially com-
pressed plates are much more sensitive to the variation
in random variables than those of the biaxially com-
pressed plates.
Fig. 6 shows the influence of side-to-thickness ratio
on the dispersion in the buckling loads of graded plates
 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175 1173

0.05 0.100
1
uniaxial compression
1: uniaxial compression
3 2: biaxial compression
0.04
1: (k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.00)
2: (k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.05) 0.075
a/b = 1.0, a/h = 10
3: (k1, k2) = (1.5, 0.50) (k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.05)

0.03
S D/Mean, λcr

SD/Mean, λcr
: n = 0.2
: n = 2.0
: n = 8.0 0.050
2
0.02
1 2

0.025
0.01
: n = 0.2
: n = 2.0
a/b = 1.0, a/h = 10 : n = 8.0

0.00 0.000
0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15 0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
SD/Mean, k1and k2 SD/Mean, (Ec, Em, νc, νm)

Fig. 3. Effect of randomness in foundation stiffness parameters on the Fig. 5. Dispersion of the buckling load of clamped FGM square plates
dispersion of the buckling load of clamped FGM square plates. resting on elastic foundations with all random variables changing
simultaneously.

0.14

1
biaxial compression
0.12 a/b = 1.0, a/h = 10 biaxial compression 1

0.10 1: (k1, k2) = (0.0, 0.00) : n = 0.2

2: (k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.00) 0.030 : n = 2.0
3: (k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.05) : n = 8.0
SD/Mean, λcr

0.08
SD/Mean, λcr

2
2

0.06

0.015

0.04 1: a/h = 10
3 2: a/h = 25

0.02 : n = 0.2 a/b = 1.0, (k1, k2)=(0.5, 0.05)

: n = 2.0
: n = 8.0
0.000
0.00 0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15 SD/Mean, (Ec, Em, νc, νm)
SD/Mean, (Ec, Em, νc, νm )
Fig. 6. Effect of side-to-thickness ratio on the dispersion of the
Fig. 4. Effect of foundation type on the dispersion of the buckling load buckling load of clamped FGM square plates resting on elastic
of clamped FGM square plates. foundations.

on elastic foundations. In this example, square plates
with two side-to-thickness ratios (a/h = 10, 25) are ana-
lyzed. The buckling load dispersion of a thicker plate is
greater than that of a thinner plate, thus indicating that
the randomness in basic variables has more effect on the
sensitivity of the buckling load as the plate thickness
increases.
The effect of plate aspect ratio on the dispersion of
buckling load of graded plates is also studied. Fig. 7 dis-
plays the SD/mean of the buckling load of biaxially
compressed, graded rectangular plates with different val-
ues of a/b (=0.5, 1.5) that are attached to elastic founda-
tions. A comparison of the results for the plates with
a/b = 0.5, 1.5 shown in Fig. 7 and those for the plates
1174 J. Yang et al. / Composites Science and Technology 65 (2005) 1165–1175
0.100
biaxial compression
0.075
: n = 0.2
: n = 2.0
: n = 8.0
SD/Mean, λcr
1: a/b = 0.5
0.050 2: a/b = 1.5
0.025
a/h = 10,
0.000
0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09
SD/Mean, (Ec, Em, νc, νm)
Fig. 7. Effect of plate aspect ratio on the dispersion of the buckling
load of clamped FGM square plates resting on elastic foundations.
with a/b = 1.0 given in Figs. 4–6 suggests that the buck-
ling loads of square graded plates are least affected by
the simultaneous change in the random variables
considered.
Moreover, Figs. 4–7 indicate that as a result of the
simultaneous change of all random material properties,
the variation of the buckling load of graded plates that
are resting on elastic foundations tends to be greater as
volume fraction index n increases.
5. Conclusion
The second-order statistics of the buckling load of
clamped FGM rectangular plates that are resting on
elastic foundations and subjected to uniform edge com-
pression has been studied in the framework of first-or-
der shear deformation theory. Differential quadrature
approximation and the mean-centered first-order per-
turbation technique have been used to determine the
mean value and variance of the buckling load. The
plate–foundation interaction is taken into account in
the analysis through a two-parameter model. Results
have been presented in both tabular and graphical
forms for plates with randomness in both material
properties and foundation stiffness parameters. It is
found that the presence of the elastic foundation can
increase the mean buckling load and decrease the sensi-
tivity of the buckling load to random material proper-
ties. Buckling load dispersion, which is linear with
variations in the random variables involved, is greatly
influenced by foundation parameters, side-to-thickness
ratio, and plate aspect ratio. The effect of the volume
2
fraction index on the variation in buckling load
strongly depends on the material composition. The
SD/mean of Ec has a predominant effect when individ-
ual random variables are considered.
1
Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was supported by
grants from the Australian Research Council
(A00104534) and from the Research Grants Council of
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
(Project No. CityU1039/04E). The authors are grateful
for this financial support.
(k1, k2) = (0.5, 0.05)
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