Buckling load prediction of functionally graded porous nanocomposite cylindrical shells reinforced with graphene platelets through the vibration correlation technique: Combination of analytical approach and numerical analysis

Abstract

One of the best effective nondestructive methods to predict the buckling load of imperfection sensitive thin-walled structures is the vibration correlation technique (VCT). Although this technique can determine the buckling load for conventional structures without reaching the instability point, it is still under development for new structures and materials. Moreover, few studies have addressed the analytical aspects of the VCT as revisited in the literature review. This paper presents a novel analytical formulation and numerical investigation of VCT to predict the buckling load of functionally graded porous nanocomposite cylindrical shells reinforced with graphene platelets (FGPNCS-R-GPLs) under uniaxial load. In the analytical section, governing equations for the vibration of an axially loaded FGPNCS-R-GPLs are derived using the modified Halpin–Tsai micromechanics approach, FSDT, and Rayleigh-Ritz method. In the numerical section, linear buckling analysis, free vibration analysis, nonlinear free vibration analysis under axial load, and nonlinear buckling analysis are performed. After validating the numerical models, the buckling load is obtained using the VCT approach, and its result compared by nonlinear numerical buckling results for more reliability and credibility. The results demonstrate that the maximum difference between the predicted buckling load using the VCT approach and the corresponding nonlinear loads is less than 3.5%. Furthermore, the proposed VCT approach provided a good estimation of the buckling load, especially when the maximum applied load is greater than 73.8% of the buckling load.