• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.451-471
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• 2022

In the present paper, the static bending and buckling responses of functionally graded carbon nanotubes-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) beam under various boundary conditions are investigated within the framework of higher shear deformation theory. The significant feature of the proposed theory is that it provides an accurate parabolic distribution of transverse shear stress through the thickness satisfying the traction-free boundary conditions needless of any shear correction factor. Uniform (UD) and four graded distributions of CNTs which are FG-O, FG-X, FG- and FG-V are selected here for the analysis. The effective material properties of FG-CNTRC beams are estimated according to the rule of mixture. To model the FG-CNTRC beam realistically, an efficient Hermite-Lagrangian finite element formulation is successfully developed. The accuracy and efficiency of the present model are demonstrated by comparison with published benchmark results. Moreover, comprehensive numerical results are presented and discussed in detail to investigate the effects of CNTs volume fraction, distribution patterns of CNTs, boundary conditions, and length-to-thickness ratio on the bending and buckling responses of FG-CNTRC beam. Several new referential results are also reported for the first time which will serve as a benchmark for future studies in a similar direction. It is concluded that the FG-X-CNTRC beam is the strongest beam that carries the lowest central deflection and is followed by the UD, V, Λ, and FG-O-CNTRC beam. Besides, the critical buckling load belonging to the FG-X-CNTRC beam is the highest, followed by UD and FG-O.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.149-159
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• 2018

Thermo-mechanical buckling of sandwich beams with a stiff core and face sheets made of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) within the framework of Timoshenko beam theory is presented. The material properties of FG-CNTRC are supposed to vary continuously in the thickness direction and are estimated through the rule of mixture. Also the properties of these materials should be considered temperature dependent. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived by using Hamilton's principle and solved using an efficient technique called the Differential Transform Method (DTM) to achieve the critical buckling of the sandwich beam in uniform thermal environment. A detailed parametric study is guided to investigate the effects of carbon nanotube volume fraction, slenderness ratio, core-to-face sheet thickness ratio, and clamped-clamped, simply-simply and clamped-simply end supports on the critical buckling behavior of sandwich beams with FG-CNTRC face sheets. Numerical results for comparison of sandwich beams with uniformly distributed carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (UD-CNTRC) face sheets with those with FG-CNTRC face sheets are also presented.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.135-148
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• 2024

This paper analytically investigates the free vibration analysis of functionally graded-carbon nanotube reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) plates by dynamic stiffness method (DSM). The properties of CNTRC are determined with the extended rule of mixture. The governing differential equations of motion based on the first-order shear deformation theory of CNTRC plate are derived using Hamilton's principle. The FG-CNTRC plates are studied for a uniform and two different distributions of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The accuracy and performance of the DSM are compared with the results obtained from closed closed-form and semi-analytical solution methods in previous studies. In this study, the effects of boundary condition, distribution type of CNTs, plate aspect ratio, plate length to thickness ratio, and different values of CNTs volume fraction on the natural frequencies of the FG-CNTRC plates are investigated. Finally, various natural frequencies of the plates in different conditions are provided as a benchmark for comparing the accuracy and precision of the other analytical and numerical methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.381-390
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• 2017

Present paper deals with the large amplitude flexural vibration of carbon nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) plates. Distribution of CNTs as reinforcements may be uniform or functionally graded (FG). The equivalent material properties of the composite media are obtained according to a refined rule of mixtures which contains efficiency parameters. To account for the large deformations, von $K{\acute{a}}rm{\acute{a}}n$ type of geometrical nonlinearity is included into the formulation. The matrix representation of the governing equations is obtained according to the Ritz method where the basic shape functions are written in terms of the Chebyshev polynomials. Time dependency of the problem is eliminated by means of the Galerkin method and the resulting nonlinear eigenvalue problem is solved employing a direct displacement control approach. Results are obtained for completely clamped and completely simply supported plates. Results are first validated for the especial cases of FG-CNTRC and cross-ply laminated plates. Afterwards, parametric studies are given for FG-CNTRC plates with different boundary conditions. It is shown that, nonlinear frequencies are highly dependent to the volume fraction and dispersion profiles of CNTs. Furthermore, mode redistribution is observed in both simply supported and clamped FG-CNTRC plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.88 no.5
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• pp.439-449
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• 2023

Non-linear vibration characteristics of functionally graded CNT-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) cylindrical shell panel on elastic foundation have not been sufficiently examined. In this situation, this study aims at the profound numerical investigation of the non-linear vibration response of FG-CNTRC cylindrical panels on Winkler-Pasternak foundation by introducing an accurate and effective 2-D meshfree-based non-linear numerical method. The large-amplitude free vibration problem is formulated according to the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) with the von Karman non-linearity, and it is approximated by Laplace interpolation functions in 2-D natural element method (NEM) and a non-linear partial derivative operator H_NL. The complex and painstaking numerical derivation on the curved surface and the crucial shear locking are overcome by adopting the geometry transformation and the MITC3+ shell elements. The derived nonlinear modal equations are iteratively solved by introducing a three-step iterative solving technique which is combined with Lanczos transformation and Jacobi iteration. The developed non-linear numerical method is estimated through the benchmark test, and the effects of foundation stiffness, CNT volume fraction and functionally graded pattern, panel dimensions and boundary condition on the non-linear vibration of FG-CNTRC cylindrical panels on elastic foundation are parametrically investigated.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.107-128
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• 2018

Thermo-mechanical vibration of sandwich beams with a stiff core and face sheets made of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) is investigated within the framework of Timoshenko beam theory. The material properties of FG-CNTRC are supposed to vary continuously in the thickness direction and are estimated through the rule of mixture and are considered to be temperature dependent. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived by using Hamilton's principle and are solved using an efficient semi-analytical technique of the differential transform method (DTM). Comparison between the results of the present work and those available in literature shows the accuracy of this method. A parametric study is conducted to study the effects of carbon nanotube volume fraction, slenderness ratio, core-to-face sheet thickness ratio, and various boundary conditions on free vibration behavior of sandwich beams with FG-CNTRC face sheets. It is explicitly shown that the vibration characteristics of the curved nanosize beams are significantly influenced by the surface density effects.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.68 no.3
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• pp.313-323
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• 2018

A numerical study is performed to investigate the impacts of thermal loading on the vibration and buckling of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) conical shells. Thermo-mechanical properties of constituents are considered to be temperature-dependent. Considering the shear deformation theory, the energy functional is derived, and applying the variational differential quadrature (VDQ) method, the mass and stiffness matrices are obtained. The shear correction factors are accurately calculated by matching the shear strain energy obtained from an exact three-dimensional distribution of the transverse shear stresses and shear strain energy related to the first-order shear deformation theory. Numerical results reveal that considering temperature-dependent material properties plays an important role in predicting the thermally induced vibration of FG-CNTRC conical shells, and neglecting this effect leads to considerable overestimation of the stiffness of the structure.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.211-220
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• 2020

This paper investigates the effect of linear and non-linear distribution of carbon nanotube volume fraction in the FG-CNTRC beams on the critical buckling by using higher-order shear deformation theories. Here, the material properties of the CNTRC beams are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a new exponential power law distribution in terms of the carbon nanotube volume fractions. The single-walled carbon nanotube is aligned and distributed in the polymeric matrix with different patterns of reinforcement; the material properties of the CNTRC beams are described by using the rule of mixture. The governing equations are derived through using Hamilton's principle. The Navier solution method is used under the specified boundary conditions for simply supported CNTRC beams. The mathematical models provided in this work are numerically validated by comparison with some available results. New results of critical buckling with the non-linear distribution of CNT volume fraction in different patterns are presented and discussed in detail, and compared with the linear distribution. Several aspects of beam types, CNT volume fraction, exponent degree (n), aspect ratio, etc., are taken into this investigation. It is revealed that the influences of non-linearity distribution in the beam play an important role to improve the mechanical properties, especially in buckling behavior. The results show that the X-Beam configuration is the strongest among all different types of CNTRC beams in supporting the buckling loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.643-656
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• 2020

This article presents a comprehensive static analysis of simply supported cross-ply carbon nanotubes reinforced composite (CNTRC) laminated nanobeams under various loading profiles. The nonlocal strain gradient constitutive relation is exploited to present the size-dependence of nano-scale. New higher shear deformation beam theory with hyperbolic function is proposed to satisfy the zero-shear effect at boundaries and parabolic variation through the thickness. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), as the reinforced elements, are distributed through the beam thickness with different distribution functions, which are, uniform distribution (UD-CNTRC), V- distribution (FG-V CNTRC), O- distribution (FG-O CNTRC) and X- distribution (FG-X CNTRC). The equilibrium equations are derived, and Fourier series function are used to solve the obtained differential equation and get the response of nanobeam under uniform, linear or sinusoidal mechanical loadings. Numerical results are obtained to present influences of CNTs reinforcement patterns, composite laminate structure, nonlocal parameter, length scale parameter, geometric parameters on center deflection ad stresses of CNTRC laminated nanobeams. The proposed model is effective in analysis and design of composite structure ranging from macro-scale to nano-scale.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.193-210
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• 2020

In this research, beside presenting real images of produced Functionally Graded Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Composites (FG-CNTRCs) and a brief review of the synthesis method of FG-CNTRCs, static and buckling analysis of FG-CNTRC with piezoelectric layers are investigated. It is assumed that the material properties of FG-CNTRC are varied through the thickness direction using four different distributions of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs). To capture the size effects, nonlocal elasticity theory proposed by A.C. Eringen is also adopted in our model. One of the topics in our paper is using a higher order theory with eight different displacement fields and comparing their results with each other. To solve the governing equations, an analytical method is used to find the deflections and critical buckling loads of FG-CNTRCs. To show the accuracy of present methodology, our results are compared with the results of simply supported rectangular nano plates available in the literature. In this research, the effects of aspect ratio, piezoelectric layer and nonlocal parameter are also studied. It is hoped that this work leads to more accurate models on FG-CNTRC.