Correspondence Relations Between Deflection, Buckling Load, and Frequencies of Thin Functionally Graded Material Plates and Those of Corresponding Homogeneous Plates

Based on the classical plate theory (CPT), we derive scaling factors between solutions of bending, buckling and free vibration of isotropic functionally graded material (FGM) thin plates and those of the corresponding isotropic homogeneous plates. The effective material properties of the FGM plate are assumed to vary piecewise continuously in the thickness direction except for the Poisson ratio that is taken to be constant. The correspondence relations hold for plates of arbitrary geometry provided that the governing equations and boundary conditions are linear. When the stretching and bending stiffnesses of the FGM plate satisfy a relation, Poisson's ratio is constant and the boundary conditions are such that the in-plane membrane forces vanish, then there exists a physical neutral surface for the FGM plate that is usually different from the plate midsurface. Example problems studied verify the accuracy of scaling factors.