Free vibration and buckling analysis of composite sandwich plates in thermal environment

In this work, a first-order discrete layer model is performed to deal with the free vibration and buckling analysis of composite sandwich plates in thermal environment. Owing to considering the effect of rotary inertias and shear deformation, thin-to-moderately thick shells can be analyzed. The differential equations of motion are derived from Hamilton’s principle, and account for the nonlinear variation of the in-plane and transverse displacements through the thickness due to temperature variation. These equations are solved by means of the closed-form Navier method, and validated by comparing the numerical results obtained by the present method with the findings published in literatures. Finally, the variation tendency of critical buckling temperature with material parameters is evaluated and shown graphically.