Mechanical and thermal post-buckling analysis of FGM rectangular plates with various supported boundaries resting on nonlinear elastic foundations

Mechanical and thermal post-buckling analysis is presented for FGM rectangular plates resting on nonlinear elastic foundations using the concept of physical neutral surface and high-order shear deformation theory, and investigations on post-buckling behavior of FGM rectangular plates with two opposite simply supported edges and other two opposite clamped edges are also new. Approximate solutions of FGM rectangular plates are given out using multi-term Ritz method, and influences played by different supported boundaries, foundation stiffnesses, thermal environmental conditions and volume fraction index are discussed in detail. It is worth noting that the effect of nonlinear elastic foundation is small at the pre-buckling and initial post-buckling state and is significant with increasing deflection at the deep post-buckling state. Especially, comparisons of post-buckling for FGM rectangular plates resting on nonlinear elastic foundations with movable simply supported edge subjected to compression acting on the geometric middle surface and the physical neutral surface are innovative, and may be helpful to clarify typical mistakes in literature. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.