Thermomechanical Coupling and Transient to Steady Global Dynamics of Orthotropic Plates

Different reduced order models of thermomechanically coupled von Kármán shear indeformable plate with prescribed linear temperature along the thickness are comparatively investigated in terms of local and global dynamics exhibited in active thermal regime, under harmonic transverse and constant axial mechanical excitations. Two-d.o.f. one-way coupled models are then used for “economical” yet reliable numerical investigation of the nonlinear dynamic response in terms of the mechanical variable and of the dominant (membrane or bending) thermal variable, under the corresponding thermal excitations inducing variably rich scenarios of buckled mechanical response. Attention is focused on the important role played by global dynamics in unveiling the meaningful effects entailed on the structure steady mechanical response by the variably slow thermal transients taken into account by the thermomechanically coupled model.