Open Access

ARTICLE

Minimizing Thermal Residual Stress in Ni/Al₂O₃ Functionally Graded Material Plate by Volume Fraction Optimization

Xing Wei^1,2, Wen Chen^1,3, Bin Chen¹

1 State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering & Center forNumerical Simulation Software in Engineering and Sciences, College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210098, China
2 College of Civil Engineering and Architecture East China Jiaotong University, Nanchang 330013, China
3 Corresponding author, Tel.: +86 25 83786873; fax: +86 25 83736860. E-mail address: chen-wen@hhu.edu.cn

Computers, Materials & Continua 2015, 48(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmc.2015.048.001

Abstract

The thermal residual stress in the fabrication of functionally graded material (FGM) systems can give rise to various mechanical failures. For a FGM system under a given fabrication environment, the thermal residual stresses are determined by the spatial distribution of its constituent components. In this study, we optimize a Ni/Al₂O₃ FGM plate aiming at minimizing the thermal residual stresses through controlling its compositional distribution. Material properties are graded in the thickness direction following a power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of constituents (P-FGM). An analytical model and a hybrid genetic algorithm with the pattern search are employed to predict and to minimize the thermal residual stresses, respectively. Simulation results show that an optimal design of the FGM plate could help fulfill its potential in reducing the thermal residual stresses.

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Keywords

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