Free vibration of functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates partially supported by a Pasternak elastic foundation is studied. The plates consist of three layers, namely a pure ceramic hardcore and two functionally graded skin layers. The effective material properties of the skin layers are considered to vary in the plate thickness by a power gradation law, and they are estimated by Mori--Tanaka scheme. The quasi-3D shear deformation theory, which takes the thickness stretching effect into account, is adopted to formulate a finite element formulation for computing vibration characteristics.  The accuracy of the derived formulation is confirmed through a comparison study. The numerical result reveals that the foundation supporting area plays an important role on the vibration behavior of the plates, and the effect of the layer thickness ratio on the frequencies is governed by the supporting area. A parametric study is carried out to highlight the effects of material distribution, layer thickness ratio, foundation stiffness and area of the foundation support on the frequencies and mode shapes of the plates. The influence of the side-to-thickness ratio on the frequencies of the plates is also examined and discussed.

Free vibration and buckling of three-phase bidirectional functionally graded sandwich (BFGSW) plates are studied in this paper for the first time by using an efficient nine-node quadrilateral (Q9) element. The core of the sandwich plates is pure ceramic, while the two skin layers are of a three-phase bidirectional functionally graded material. The element is derived on the basis of the Mindlin plate theory and linked interpolations. Fundamental frequencies and buckling loads are computed for the plates with various boundary conditions. Numerical result shows that convergence of the linked interpolation element is faster compared to the conventional Lagrangian interpolation Q9 element. Numerical investigations are carried out to highlight the influence of the material gradation and the side-to-thickness ratio on the vibration and buckling behaviour of the plates.