Hadi Babaei - Mechanical Engineering Department, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran
Mohammad Reza Eslami - Mechanical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran

An attempt is made in this research to analyze the nonlinear bending behavior of curved sandwich beams under thermal-mechanical coupling loading. A functionally graded material curved beam with surface bonded piezoelectric actuator layers is analytically analyzed. The curved sandwich beam is subjected to a uniformly distributed transverse pressure load in thermo-electrical environment. All material properties of the curved sandwich beam are assumed to be temperature-dependent. The governing equilibrium equations of the curved sandwich beam are established with the aid of modified couple stress theory and the virtual displacement principle. The obtained governing equations are written based on the first-order shear deformation model, uncoupled thermo-elasticity and the von Kármán type of kinematic assumption. These equilibrium equations are solved for the simply supported and clamped boundary conditions by using the two-step perturbation technique. Closed-form solutions are derived to give the deflected shape of the curved sandwich beam with immovable ends. The nonlinear bending behavior of the curved sandwich beam is highly affected by the couple stress component, piezoelectric layers, temperature variation, power law index and geometrical parameters of the sandwich structure.

Nonlinear bending, Thermomechanical load, Functionally graded curved beam, Piezoelectric layer, Modified couple stress theory