494

495


Proceedings of
The Seventh International Congress on Thermal Stresses, TS2007
4-7 June, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan


3-D ELASTIC-PLASTIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF TWO
DIMENSIONAL FUNCTIONALLY GRADED MATERIALS UNDER
CYCLIC THERMAL LOADING

Mahmoud Nemat-Alla
1
, Khaled Ahmed
2


1
Associate professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt
2
Asistant professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Assiut University, currently on leave at
Mechanical Engineering Department, UBC, Vancouver, Canada

The temperature distribution on the outer surface of the new aerospace craft, at high speeds and altitudes,
ranges from 1033K along the top of the fuselage to 2066K at the nose. Furthermore, this temperature
level has to decay severely, through the thickness of the craft body, to the room temperature inside the
craft. Conventional functionally graded material (FGM) cannot withstand such applications. The two-
dimensional functionally graded material, 2D-FGM, was introduced in order to significantly reduce the
thermal and residual stresses in such machine elements. However, no work was found investigating the
elastic-plastic stress analysis for 2D FGM taking into account its temperature dependent material
properties. Furthermore, elastic-plastic stress-strain relation based on the rule of mixture of the 2D FGM
is not available in the literature. In addition 2D linear finite element modeling of such problem shows an
error level of about 39% in o
y
with plane strain approximation and 29% in o
x
with plane stress
approximation. In the current work, a 3D finite element model of a 2D-FGM plate made of ZrO2/6061-
T6/Ti-6Al-4V with temperature dependent nonlinear material properties is presented. Also, an elastic
plastic stress-strain relation based on the rule of mixture of the 2D FGM is proposed. Then, an elastic-
plastic stress analysis of the plate under transient cyclic heating and cooling is adopted. The results of the
FE model show the superiority of the 2D FGM over the conventional FGM in reducing the residual
stresses due to thermal loadings.

Keywords: 2D-FGM, Elastic-Plastic material model, residual stresses, rules of mixture, temperature
dependent material properties, thermal stresses, finite element analysis, volume fractions.


1
nematala@acc.aun.edu.eg
2
khaled@interchange.ubc.ca
1 Introduction
Steinberg [1] showed that the temperature
distribution on the outer surface of new aerospace craft,
at high speeds and altitudes, ranges from 1033K along
the top of the fuselage to 2066K at the nose. Further
more, this temperature level has to decay severely,
through the thickness of the craft body, to the room
temperature inside the craft. The composite layers
failed to withstand such application because it is
vulnerable to cracking and separation through layers
interface [2-3]. Also, the thermal protection materials
proposed by Callister [3] have the same drawbacks of
the composite layers. The concept of Functionally
Graded Material (FGM) has been introduced as a
thermal barrier material [2]. However, it may also not
be effective in the design of the advanced machine
elements that are subjected to high temperature
variations in two or three directions, resulting in severe
thermal stresses [3]. So, the two-dimensional
functionally graded material, 2D-FGM, was introduced
in order to significantly reduce the thermal and residual
stresses in such machine elements [4 - 7]. In these
investigations and others, the volume fractions
distributions of the 1D-FGM were optimized and
randomly distributed in 2D in order to relax the thermal
stresses. The concept of adding a third material
constituent to the conventional FGM, to withstand the
induced sever thermal stresses due to temperature
differences, was firstly introduced by Nemat-Alla [8].
Nemat-Alla [8] has, also, introduced a more general
rule of mixture for the 2D-FGM for easier modeling and
496


analysis. The volume fraction distribution for such 2D-
FGM was then optimized for minimum thermal stresses
by Nemat-Alla et al. [9]. However, these previous
investigations considered temperature-independent
material properties and elastic behavior of the 2D-FGM
constituents. Furthermore, all available investigations
in the literature, for either 1D-FGM or 2D-FGM, were
approximated to 2-D thermal stress-strain analysis.
The main aim of the current work is to investigate,
using 3-D finite element thermo elastic plastic analysis,
the behavior of the 2D-FGM under two-dimensional
cyclic sever thermal loading, considering temperature
dependent material properties.
2. Functionally Graded Material Modeling
The studied plate is oriented such that the length
lies on z-axis, the width lies on x-axis and the thickness
lies on y-axis. The 1D-FGM plate is made of two
constituents; ceramic ZrO2, and titanium alloy
Ti-6Al-4V. The 2D-FGM plate is made of three
constituents; ceramic ZrO2, aluminum alloy 6061-T6,
and titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V. The linear and nonlinear
material properties of each point on the plate would
depend on the volume fractions of the constituents of
this point. Figure 1 shows the grading of the FGM plate
constituents for 1D-FGM and 2D-FGM.







Figure 1: The location of the 100% of each constituent in 1D-
and 2D-FGM plates.

2.1 Volume fractions Rules of Mixtures for 2D-FGM
The volume fractions and the rules of mixture of
the 2D-FGM plate with porosity are considered
according to Nemat-Alla [8]. ZrO
2
is graded in one
direction through the y-axis from 100% at y=h to 0% at
y=0. The other two constituents are graded linearly in
two directions x and y. 6061-T6 is 100% at x=0 and
y=0. Then, it is decayed linearly to be 0% at x=w and
y=h. Ti-6Al-4V is 100% at x=w and y=0. Then it
decays linearly to be 0% at x=0 and y=h. The volume
fractions of the three constituents are constant along the
plate length, i.e, along the z-axis.

2.2 Elastic-Plastic Material Model for 2D-FGM
The strain hardening power low model, have been
previously adopted for ceramic/metal conventional
FGMs [10-13]. However, these models were proposed
in a non-conventional form. By utilizing the rule of
mixture proposed by Nemat-Alla [8] the following
stress- strain relation of the 2D-FGM could be obtained;

( )
| |
( )
1
1
1
V
V
n
n
YV V YV
V V
V oy y
k
k E p
o v o
o c
(
+ | |
( = +
|
(
\ .


(1)
where
1 1 2 2 3 3 V
k k V k V E V = + +



1 1 2 2 3 3 YV Y Y Y
V V V o o o o = + +


( )( )
( )( )
5 8 37 8
8 1 23 8
y
V
p v v
v
v v
+
=
+ +



1 1 2 2 3 3 V
V V V c c c c = + +



1 1 2 2 3 V
n nV n V V = + +


Where E
oy
and p
y
, are known functions. Also, v
i
k
i,

and n
i
o
Yi
and E
i
are Poissons ratio, the stiffness
coefficient, strain hardening exponent, initial yield
stress and modulus of elasticity respectively, (i = 1; 2;
3). The temperature dependencies of the three
constituents are collected from [14, 16].
3. 3D Finite Element Modeling
Although the material properties of the 2D-FGM
plate and the thermal loadings change only in the x-y
plane the thermal strains would create 3D stress strain
fields. For assessing the 2D approximation for such
case, an aluminum plate similar to that of the 2D-FGM
plate is modeled with 3D, 2D plane strain, and 2D plane
stress models. The models were loaded with a varying
temperature field in x-y plane similar to the expected
field on the studied 2D-FGM plate. The results show an
error level about 39% in o
y
with plane strain
approximation and 29% in o
x
with plane stress
approximation. Such a result proves the essentiality of
the 3D model to study any thermal strain problem.

A 2D-FGM plate having 30 mm thickness, in the y
direction, 300 mm width, in the x-direction, and 1000
mm length in the z-direction is adopted through the
current investigations. The plate is modeled using 3D
eight-node isoparametric thermal-structure solid
element. Due to the inhomogeneity of the material in
the x- and y- directions, every element in the finite
element mesh has its own thermal and mechanical
properties based on the x-y coordinate of its centeroid.
The model is solved, firstly, for nonlinear transient
temperature dependent conductivity heat transfer
analysis for one heating-cooling cycle. Then, the
recorded temperatures at the assigned 25 time
increments are used as structural loads for the elastic-
plastic structural analysis. The elastic-plastic analysis is
then carried out for 5 cycles, 125 time increments.

3.1 Transient Thermal Analysis
The space craft outer surface is heated during
taking off and steady flying then it is cooled during and
after landing. This cycle of heating and cooling is
simulated with heat flux thermal loads for heating and
convection thermal loads for cooling. The heating
conditions of the surface of a space craft, according to
Steinberg [1] and Callister [3], can be simulated by
applying a non-uniform heat flux on the upper surface.
This heat flux has its maximum value at the nose of the
space craft then it decays gradually along the top of the
fuselage. This non-uniform heat flux may be simulated
as shown in Figure 2.
During this heating phase, the lower surface of the
plate, (y=0), is subjected to a uniform cooling by
convection h
Lheating
to keep it at room temperature of
1D-FGM
2D-FGM
Titanium
Ceramic
Aluminum Alloy
497


0
300
600
900
1200
1500
1800
2100
0 1500 3000 4500 6000 7500 9000
Time [sec]
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e





[
K
]
Taking off
Steady flying
Landing
1D

2D
300K. According to Choules and Kokini [17] a
convection heat transfer coefficient h
Lheating
= 1000
W/m
2
K and 300K ambient temperature is applicable. In
addition, the right and left surfaces of the plate, (x=0,
x=w), are considered to be thermally isolated during the
heating and cooling phases.










Figure 2: Applied heat flux on the plate upper surface during
the heating stage.

The cooling phase, from the final stage of heating
to the room temperature of 300K, is simulated by
applying a convection thermal load on the upper and
lower surfaces of the plate, with heat transfer coefficient
h
Ucooling
= h
Lcooling
=1000W/m
2
K and 300K ambient
temperature. Figure 3 shows the effect of this heating-
cooling model on the 1D- and 2D-FGM plates.













Figure 3: Maximum temperature on the space craft upper
surface made of 1D- and 2D-FGM plates during
taking off, steady flying, and landing.

3.2 Elastic-Plastic Stress-Strain Analysis
In the elastic-plastic stress-strain analysis, the lower
surface of the plate is constrained in the y-direction, one
side is constrained in the x-direction, and the middle x-y
plane is constrained in the z-direction. Then, the
recorded temperatures at the assigned 25 time
increments are used as structural loads for the elastic-
plastic structural analysis. The elastic-plastic analysis is
then carried out for 5 cycles, i.e., through 125 time
increments.
4. Results and Discussions
The previously discussed thermal boundary
conditions have been applied on 1D-FGM and 2D-FGM
plates. The 1D-FGM plate, under such boundary
conditions, suffers from a wide variation in the resulted
temperature field during the steady flying stage.
However, the 2D-FGM plate, under the same boundary
conditions, shows ability of smoothly distributing the
resulted temperature field through the plate at the same
stage. The temperature variation on the 1D-FGM plate
varies from 450K to 2070K, while it varies from 350K
to 1350K on the 2D-FGM plate, (Figure 4). The third
constituent, Aluminum Alloy, in the 2D-FGM plate is
characterized by its high thermal conductivity, which
plays a significant role in smoothing the temperature
variation in the 2D-FGM plate.
In addition, the stresses on the 1D-FGM plate,
during steady flying and after landing, pass the yield
stress on the ceramic side creating high values of plastic
strains, (Figure 5). This stress-strain level yields to
create cracks on this side since ceramics are very brittle.
On the other hand, the stresses on the 2D-FGM plate,
during steady flying and after landing, produce about
half of the plastic strains produced in the 1D-FGM
plate. Furthermore, these resulted plastic strains are
reported at the Aluminum Alloy side, (Figure 6). The
Aluminum Alloy, in the 2D-FGM plate is also
characterized by being highly ductile constituent that
plays a significant role in delaying any crack
propagation into the 2D-FGM plate due to temperature
variations.
It is worth noting that the optimization of the
grading function of the Aluminum Alloy, which will be
done in the future, within the Ceramic / Titanium FGM
plate, would achieve better results in reducing the
residual stresses in the 2D-FGM plate.










Figure 4: Temperature fields in Kelvin that resulted on the
1D-FGM and 2D-FGM plates during the steady
flying stage.




3














Figure 5: 1
st
principle plastic strain in the 1D-FGM plate
a- Critical zone at steady flying
b- Critical zone after 1 cycle c- Critical zone after 5 cycles
150
200
250
300
350
400
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
x/l






q
m
i
n




q

k
W
/
m
2





q
m
a
x
( )
max min min
sin 1
2
x
q q q q
l
t
| |
= +
|
|
\ .
a
b
c
0.0308
0.0
0.0062 0.0123
0.0185
0.0246
0.0104
0.0
0.0021 0.0042 0.0062
0.0083
0.0111
0.0
0.0022 0.0044 0.0067
0.0089
Critical Zone
300 600 900 1200 1500 1800 2100
1D-FGM
2D-FGM
498



















Figure 6: 1
st
principle plastic strains in the 2D-FGM plate
a- Critical zone at steady flying
b- Critical zone after 1 cycle c- Critical zone after 5 cycles
5. Conclusion
In the current work, an elastic-plastic 3D finite
element model for 1D-FGM and 2D-FGM plates is
developed. The current work shows that 3D analysis of
thermal stresses analysis is a must. A flow rule based on
the power low and the rule of mixture proposed by [8] is
also developed for both 1D-FGM and 2D-FGM plates.
The finite element model is first solved for
nonlinear temperature dependency conductivity. Then
the elastic-plastic behavior of the FGM plates with
temperature dependent material properties is evaluated.
The results have shown that the Aluminum Alloy, if
used as a third constituent, has double effect on
reducing the residual stresses on the 2D-FGM plate. Its
high conductivity coefficient smoothly redistributes the
temperature field within the 2D-FGM plate. Also, the
Aluminum Alloy ductile behavior delays the crack
propagation within the 2D-FGM plate.
Further work is needed to optimize the distribution
of the Aluminum Alloy within the Ceramic/Titanium
FGM plate to achieve further reduction in the residual
stresses in the 2D-FGM plate.
References
[1] Steinberg, Morris A., Materials for Aerospace, U.S.
goals for subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic
flight and for space exploration call for alloys and
composites notable for strength, light weight and
resistance to heat, Scientific American, Vol. 244,
pp. 59-64, 1986.
[2] Noda, N., Thermal stresses in functionally graded
materials, J. Thermal Stresses, Vol. 22, pp. 477-
512, 1999.
[3] Callister, W, Materials science and engineering an
introduction, John Wiley, chapter 20, pp s347-s351,
2001.
[4] Aboudi, J., Pindera, M. and Arnold, S.,
Thermoelastic theory for the response of materials
functionally graded in two directions, Int. J. Solids
Structures, Vol.33, pp.931-966, 1996.
[5] Aboudi, J., Pindera, M., and Arnold, S., Thermo-
plasticity theory for bi-directionally functionally
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pp.809-861, 1996.
[6] Cho, J.R. and Ha, D.Y., Optimal tailoring of 2D
volume-fraction distributions for heat-resisting
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developing two-dimensional functionally graded
materials, International journal of solids and
structures, Vol.40, pp.7339-7356, 2003.
[9] Nemat-Alla,, M. Hassab-Allah, I.M. and Emara, K
Design of two dimensional functionally graded
materials 8
th
Inter. conference on mechanical
design and production engineering, Cairo
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boundary layer framework considering material
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behavior of a functionally graded material:
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[12] Jin, Z.H., Paulino, G. H. and Jr, R. H. D., Cohesive
fracture modeling of elastic-plastic crack growth in
functionally graded materials, Engineering Fracture
Mechanics, Vol. 70, pp. 18851912, 2003.
[13] Tvergaard, V., Theoretical investigation of the
effect of plasticity on crack growth along a
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elasticplastic solids, Engineering Fracture
Mechanics, Vol. 69, pp. 16351645, 2002.
[14] Noda, N., Thermal stresses intensity factor for
functionally gradient plate with an edge crack, J.
Thermal Stresses, Vol. 20, pp. 373-387, 1997.
[15] Noda, N., Nakai, S. and Tsuji, T., Thermal stresses
in functionally graded material of particle-reinforce
composite, JSME, series A, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp.178-
184, 1998.
[16] Guo, Y.B., Wen, Q. and Horstemeyer, M.F., An
internal state variable plasticity-based approach to
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International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, Vol.
47, pp. 14231441, 2005.
[17]Choules, B.D. and Kokini, K., Architecture of
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thermal fracture, ASME J. Engineering Materials
and Technology, Vol. 118, pp 522-528, 1996.

0.0121
0.0
0.0024 0.0048
0.0073 0.0097
0.0073
0.0
0.0015 0.0029
0.0044 0.0058
0.0078
0.0
0.0016 0.0031
0.0047 0.0062
Critical Zone
a
b
c