  In the present paper, a new parabolic shear deformation beam theory is
developed and applied to investigate the bending behavior of functionally
graded (FG) sandwich curved beam. The present theory is exploited to satisfy
parabolic variation of shear stress distribution along the thickness direction
thereby obviating the use of any shear correction factors. The material
properties of FG sandwich beam change continuously from one surface to another
according to a power-law function. Three common configurations of FG beams are
used for the study, namely: (a) single layer FG beam; (b) sandwich beam with FG
face sheets and homogeneous core and (c) sandwich beams with homogeneous face
sheets and FG core. The governing equations derived herein are solved by
employing the finite element method using a two-noded beam element, developed
for this purpose. The robustness and reliability of the developed finite
element model are demonstrated by comparing its results with those available by
other researchers in existing literature. The comparison studies show that the
proposed model is: (a) accurate and comparable with the literature; b) of fast
rate of convergence to the reference solution; c) excellent in terms of
numerical stability and d) valid for FG sandwich curved beams. Moreover,
comprehensive numerical results are presented and discussed in detail to
investigate the effects of volume fraction index, radius of curvature, material
distributions, length-to-thickness ratio, face-to-core-thickness ratio,
loadings and boundary conditions on the static response of FG curved sandwich
beam. New referential results are reported which will be serve as a benchmark
for future research.
