Vol. 1, Issue 7, Part B (2015)

Abstract
The paper investigates the effect of varying reinforcement gradation index (m) on steady state creep behaviour of thick walled cylinder made of functionally graded composite under internal and external pressure. The SiCp reinforcement in the cylinder is assumed to vary radially according to the power law function with reinforcement gradation index (m). The distribution of SiCp reinforcement is uniform for m=0, increasing for m>0 and decreasing m<0 along the radial direction. The creep behavior of the composite is described by Norton’s Power law. The results obtained for FG cylinder are compared with those estimated for a uniform composite cylinder. The study reveals that for the radial stress in cylinder decreases throughout when the SiCp reinforcement content is decreasing (m<0) along the radius in the FGM cylinder. Upon imposing SiCp gradient, for non-linearly decreasing reinforcement content along the radius, in the composite cylinder, the tangential stress increases near the inner radius but decreases toward the outer radius. Unlike stresses, the tangential and radial strain rates in the composite cylinder reduce over the entire radius when the SiCp reinforcement content is decreasing (m<0) along the radius in the FGM cylinder.