An Investigation into the Free Vibration of Intact and Cracked FGM Plates

Abstract In this study, the linear free vibration of intact and cracked functionally graded material plates is investigated numerically and experimentally. The experimental work is limited to the isotropic materials. The numerical work is based on finite element, where a code is developed to obtain the natural frequencies of intact plates based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) using MATLAB software. Also, a model of through-cracked FGM plate is developed using ANSYS Workbench with the help of APDL coding. The material properties of the plates under study are graded in one, two, and three directions. The novelty of this study emerges through its examination of the synergistic impacts resulting from variations in FGM material properties, crack length, crack orientation, and crack location. These effects are comprehensively discussed in the results section. The result of the present model shows that the use of three-directional FGM reduces the natural frequency compared with the other cases of two-directional and unidirectional FGM. Also, the results show that the effect of FGM gradient on the frequency of intact and cracked plate is high when the gradient index $$n < 3 .$$ n < 3 . The present paper results are useful for the design of FGM plates especially when cracks exist.