5. Theoretical Investigation of Physical, Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Al–Cu Functionally Graded Material Through Gradation Laws

Functionally graded materials are tailor-made materials. In the present work, the theoretical study of Al–Cu functionally graded material through gradation laws is investigated. The properties like density, Young’s modulus, shear modulus, specific heat and thermal conductivity are taken into consideration. The gradation laws such as power law, exponential law and sigmoid law gradation laws are applied to evaluate the behavior of these parameters at varying index numbers from one to three. It has been concluded that increasing the value of power law index (n), variation in all the effective material properties (mechanical and physical) of Al–Cu FGM, changing from linear into a polynomial way. Al (material at the bottom surface) properties are becoming more predominant up-to a larger range of z/h ratio with increasing value of power law index (n). At the value of n = 1, power law and Sigmoid law both are predicting the same results which are simply the rule of mixture.