Nonlinear thermo-mechanical buckling and postbuckling of sandwich FG-GPLRC spherical caps and circular plates with porous core by using higher-order shear deformation theory

The main aim of this research is to establish the algorithm for nonlinear thermo-mechanical buckling of sandwich functionally graded graphene platelet reinforced composite (FG-GPLRC) shallow spherical caps and circular plates with porous core under external pressure and/or uniformly distributed thermal load according to the higher-order shear deformation theory considering the von Karman nonlinearities. Sandwich spherical caps and circular plates are made by the porous core and two FG-GPLRC coatings and are assumed to be rested on an elastic foundation modeled by the Pasternak model. The equilibrium equation system in the form of nonlinear algebra can be approximately obtained using the Ritz energy method. The critical buckling loads and postbuckling curves can be explicitly determined. The effects of material parameters, geometrical parameters, porous core, and elastic foundation on thermo-mechanical buckling of sandwich spherical caps and circular plates with porous core and FG-GPLRC coatings are investigated and discussed in detail in the numerical investigation section.