Abstract
With its extraordinary physical properties, graphene is regarded as one of the most attractive reinforcements to enhance the mechanical characteristics of composite materials. However, the existing models in the literature might meet severe challenges in the interlaminar-stress prediction of thick, functionally graded, graphene-reinforced-composite (FG-GRC)-laminated beams that have been integrated with piezoelectric macro-fiber-composite (MFC) actuators under electro-mechanical loadings. If the transverse shear deformations cannot be accurately described, then the mechanical performance of the FG-GRC-laminated beams with MFC actuators will be significantly impacted by the electro-mechanical coupling effect and the sudden change of the material characteristics at the interfaces. Therefore, a new electro-mechanical coupled-beam model with only four independent displacement variables is proposed in this paper. Employing the Hu–Washizu (HW) variational principle, the precision of the transverse shear stresses in regard to the electro-mechanical coupling effect can be improved. Moreover, the second-order derivatives of the in-plane displacement parameters have been removed from the transverse-shear-stress components, which can greatly simplify the finite-element implementation. Thus, based on the proposed electro-mechanical coupled model, a simple C0-type finite-element formulation is developed for the interlaminar shear-stress analysis of thick FG-GRC-laminated beams with MFC actuators. The 3D elasticity solutions and the results obtained from other models are used to assess the performance of the proposed finite-element formulation. Additionally, comprehensive parametric studies are performed on the influences of the graphene volume fraction, distribution pattern, electro-mechanical loading, boundary conditions, lamination scheme and geometrical parameters of the beams on the deformations and stresses of the FG-GRC-laminated beams with MFC actuators.
Highlights
Composite structures with sensors and actuators, which are called smart structures, are used in a wide range of engineering applications [1,2,3]
The present results are compared with the exact solutions [70] and the results obtained from Reddy’s higher-order shear-deformation theory (HSDTR), trigonometric higher-order shear-deformation theory (HSDT-S&G), first-order sheardeformation theory (FSDT) and classical lamination theory (CLT)
Based on an attractive electro-mechanical coupled-beam model, a C0-type finiteelement formulation was developed for the interlaminar shear stress analysis of a thick FG-GRC-laminated beam with an Macro-fiber composites (MFCs) actuator
Summary
Composite structures with sensors and actuators, which are called smart structures, are used in a wide range of engineering applications [1,2,3]. In order to achieve the vibration control and shape simulation of smart structures with MFC patches, Zhang et al [7] studied the active shape and vibration control of laminated plates with MFCs. Guo et al [8] analyzed the nonlinear dynamics of MFC piezoelectric plates with graphene skins. Dong et al [9] proposed an equivalent-forcemodeling approach to investigate plate-type structures that were integrated with MFC actuators. Rao et al [10] carried out the large-deflection electro-mechanical analysis of laminated composite structures that were bonded with MFC actuators under thermoelectro-mechanical loads. Gawryluk et al [11] studied the dynamic behavior of a composite beam that was rotating at a constant angular velocity and excited by an MFC actuator. Gawryluk et al [12] analyzed the problem of vibration reduction in a cantilever beam with an embedded MFC actuator under kinematic excitation. Zhou et al [13] investigated the aeroelastic stability of curved composite panels with embedded MFC actuators in a supersonic airflow
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