In-plane functionally graded plates: A study on the free vibration and dynamic instability behaviours

Functionally graded materials are well-known composite materials, characterized by a continuously varying mixture of materials’ phases, tailored to meet structures operating requirements while contributing to minimize abrupt stress transitions at dissimilar materials’ interfaces, as occur in composite laminates. Hence, designing a functionally graded material to comply with these objectives constitutes an important modelling tool to improve structures’ functionality. These graded composite materials present more commonly a mixture variation through the structures’ thickness direction. However, when dealing with thin structures this solution may present evident limitations, both from the manufacturing perspective as well as from the through-thickness distribution influence on the structure response. It is therefore important to explore other spatial mixture distributions’ possibilities.