In this study, the thermal buckling and postbuckling of functionally graded (FG) nanocomposite annular sector plates reinforced by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are numerically analyzed. The effective material properties of FG nanocomposite are temperature-dependent (TD) and evaluated via the modified micromechanical method and rule of mixture. Based on the higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and using the principle of virtual work and variational differential quadrature (VDQ) approach, the unified weak form of discretized nonlinear governing equilibrium equations is derived. Then, by using the linear part of equations and solving the derived eigenvalue problem, the critical temperature rise and associated mode shapes are obtained, which are used as the initial guess in solving the nonlinear thermal postbuckling problem. The pseudo-arc-length method and an iterative solver are employed to obtain the nonlinear thermal postbuckling equilibrium path of the FG nanocomposite annular sector plates. The influences of geometrical parameters, boundary conditions (BCs), CNT volume fraction, and CNT distribution pattern on the critical temperature rise and thermal postbuckling behavior of the FG nanocomposite annular sector plates are evaluated and discussed. Also, comparisons are made between the results considering the TD and temperature-independent (TID) properties. It is demonstrated that for higher values of sector angle, the effect of sector angle on the critical temperature rise and thermal postbuckling path is negligible. Moreover, by increasing the sector angle, the effect of BCs of straight edges vanishes, and the critical temperature rise and thermal postbuckling curves of for BCs of CSCS and SCSC approach those for CCCC and SSSS ones.
