Analysis of axially temperature-dependent functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite plates

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive analysis to investigate the static buckling stability and static deflection of axially single-walled (SW) functionally graded (FG) carbon nanotubes reinforced composite (CNTRC) plates with temperature-dependent material properties and graded by different functions, for the first time. The distribution of the carbon nanotubes is described by two functions, one for the x-direction CNTs distribution (CNTRC-x plate) and another for z-direction CNTs distribution (CNTRC-z plate). The graduation functions of CNTs are unidirectional (UD CNTRC), FG-X CNTRC, FG-O CNTRC, and FG-V CNTRC. The extended rule of mixture and the molecular dynamics simulations are exploited to evaluate the equivalent mechanical properties of FG-CNTRC plate. Equilibrium equations are formulated using principal of Hamilton and solved analytically using Galerkin method to cover various boundary conditions. New higher order shear deformation theory is proposed. The numerical results gained by the proposed solution are verified by comparing with those of published ones. Numerical results present influences of gradation function, inhomogeneity parameters, aspect ratio, thickness ratio, boundary conditions and temperature on the static buckling and deflection of FG-CNTRC plate using modified higher order shear theories.