Reduction of the thermal stresses in machine elements that are subjected to severe thermal loadings
was achieved by developing two-dimensional functionally graded materials, 2D-FGM. In the current investigation,
composition optimization for ZrO2/6061-T6/Ti-6Al-4V 2D-FGM, under a severe thermal loading cycle
that consists of heating followed by cooling, was carried out based on the minimization of temperatures and
thermal and residual stresses to achieve better reduction of the thermal stresses. From the current investigation
it was found that the optimum composition based on the minimum value of the maximum temperature for
ZrO2/6061-T6/Ti-6Al-4V 2D-FGMwas achieved formx = 0.1 andmy = 0.1, while the optimum composition
based on the minimum value of the maximum normalized equivalent stresses for ZrO2/6061-T6/Ti-6Al-4V
2D-FGM was achieved for mx = 0.1 and my = 5, where mx and my are the composition variation parameters
in x- and y-directions, respectively. Also, the obtained optimum composition of ZrO2/6061-T6/Ti-6Al-4V
2D-FGM can stand well with the adopted severe thermal loading without any plastic deformation or residual
stresses, where the maximum value of the normalized equivalent stresses during the heating stage was 0.8 and
the maximum value of the normalized equivalent stresses during the cooling stage was 0.24.