In this article, based on the higher-order shear deformation plate theory, buckling analysis of a rectangular plate made of functionally graded piezoelectric materials and its effective parameters are investigated. Assuming the transverse distribution of electric potential to be a combination of a parabolic and a linear function of thickness coordinate, the equilibrium equations for the buckling analysis of an FGP rectangular plate are established. In addition to the Maxwell equation, all boundary conditions including the conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate for closed and open circuited are satisfied. Considering double sine solution (Navier solution) for displacement field and electric potential, an analytical solution is obtained for full simply supported boundary conditions. The accurate buckling load of FGP plate is presented for both open and closed circuit conditions. It is found that the critical buckling load for open circuit is more than that of closed circuit in all loading conditions. Furthermore, it is observed that the influence of dielectric constants on the critical buckling load is more than those of others.

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