This paper investigates the static and dynamic performances of sandwich plates with magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) core, in which the MRE core includes two copper wire layers, two inner metal layers, and one MRE layer. First, based on the complex modulus method, the Jolly theory and the pre-defined magnetic coefficients, the dynamic moduli, and loss factors of MRE are assumed as a function of magnetic induction intensity. Furthermore, a theoretical model of the MRE sandwich plates (MRESPs) is proposed, which considers the internal magnetic field excitation and four types of panel materials, namely fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP), fiber-reinforced polymer with carbon nanotubes (CNT-FRP), metal and fiber-metal hybrid (FMH) panels. After the deformation and energy equations are derived to solve the static bearing stiffness, dynamic stiffness, and damping parameters, some literature results are employed to provide the initial validation of the model developed. Subsequently, four MRESP specimens with the FRP, CNT-FRP, metal, and FMH panels are fabricated and measured to further verify the model as well as to evaluate the mechanical performance. The influence of critical geometric and material parameters related to MRE on static and dynamic properties is also discussed to summarize some practical conclusions for engineering applications.

A stepped functionally graded piezoelectric (FGPM) plate model is proposed for the first time, and its free and forced vibration are studied by using the domain energy decomposition method. The segmentation technique is used to discretize the structure along the length direction. At the structural boundary and piecewise interface, the weight parameters are introduced to satisfy the boundary conditions and the coordination conditions between the piecewise interfaces. On this basis, the boundary conditions of subdomains can be regarded as free boundary a constraint, which reduces the difficulty in constructing the displacement admissible function. Because all the structures of subdomains are the same, the displacement admissible functions of them are uniformly obtained by the two-dimensional Jacobian orthogonal polynomial expansion. The potential energy function of the plate is based on the first-order shear deformation theory. The displacement admissible function is substituted into the potential energy function, then the standard variational operation is used to obtain the solution equation of the dynamic characteristics of the FGPM plate. Through the numerical calculation, the superior calculation performance of the method is proved, and it is not limited to the boundary conditions. On this basis, the effects of geometric and material parameters on free and forced vibration of FGPM plate are also discussed.

This article is concerned with thermal vibration behaviors of the functionally graded material–stepped cylindrical shell coupled with annular plate, including free vibration, transient response, and steady state response. The stepped cylindrical shell is divided into N _s segments at locations of thickness and radius variations, which is coupled with N _p annular plates. The boundary and coupling conditions are achieved by introducing the artificial virtual spring technology. Under the framework of FSDT, the displacement function of arbitrary shell segment and annular plate is expanded with Chebyshev polynomials and Fourier series for circumferential direction. Compared with results obtained by the finite element method and the references, a series of numerical examples and validations are presented to verify the convergence and accuracy of the current method. The effects of the relevant parameters containing the geometric parameters, boundary conditions, various loadings, and the thermal environment are investigated in detail.

A general formulation is considered for the free vibration of curved laminated composite beams (CLCBs) with alterable curvatures and diverse boundary restraints. In accordance with higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT), an improved variational approach is introduced for the numerical modeling. Besides, the multi-segment partitioning strategy is exploited for the derivation of motion equations, where the CLCBs are separated into several segments. Penalty parameters are considered to handle the arbitrary boundary conditions. The admissible functions of each separated beam segment are expanded in terms of Jacobi polynomials. The solutions are achieved through the variational approach. The proposed methodology can deal with arbitrary boundary restraints in a unified way by conveniently changing correlated parameters without interfering with the solution procedure.