Vibration of FG sandwich beams under moving load using first-order shear deformable beam element

Abstract

The dynamic response of functionally graded (FG) sandwich beams excited by a moving point load is studied by the finite element method. Based on the first-order shear deformation beam theory, a finite beam element is formulated by using the hierachical shape functions. The beam is assumed to be formed from a homogeneous ceramic core and two symmetrical FG layers. The implicit Newmark method is employed in computing the dynamic response of the beams. The numerical results show that the formulated element is capable to access accurately the dynamic characteristics of the beam by using just several elements. A parametric study is carried out to highlight the effect of the material distribution, the core thickness to the beam height ratio and the moving load speed on the vibration characteristics.