Analytical buckling response of sectorial porous plates integrated with piezoelectric layers

This paper is concerned with influence of porosity and mechanical/electrical boundary conditions on buckling of moderately thick, porous sector and annular sector plates integrated with piezoelectric layers. Presence of both porous and piezoelectric elements in a configuration provides new opportunities for manipulating the buckling load broadly. To demonstrate these possibilities, across the thickness of the core plate, varying porosity profiles are considered, yet the network of pores is assumed to be free of fluid. The governing equations of the sandwich plate under uniform in-plane mechanical loading are obtained by taking the Mindlin plate theory and von Kármán assumptions into account; and later the nonlinear nature of the problem is simplified through the use of the adjacent equilibrium criterion. Next, decoupled formulae for all the unknown kinematic variables are reached by introducing two transformation functions. The critical buckling loads are computed analytically by assuming simply supported radial edges and classical boundary conditions for the circumferential edges. Eventually, the effect of the mechanical/electrical boundary conditions, geometrical parameters and porosity is realized by comprehensive parametric studies.