Electro-mechanical analysis of functionally graded graphene reinforced composite laminated plate with macro fiber composite actuator

Abstract

Graphene is considered to be a desirable reinforcement material for composite materials due to its exceptional mechanical properties. However, there is a lack of research on the interlaminar stress analysis of graphene reinforced composite plates bonded with a macro fiber composite (MFC) actuator subjected to electro- mechanical loads. Inaccurate descriptions of interlaminar shear deformations can significantly affect the mechanical performance of the MFC piezoelectric graphene reinforced composite plate due to the electro-mechanical coupling feature and abrupt change in material properties at the interfaces of neighboring layers. To address this issue, this study proposes an attractive plate model for the analysis of MFC piezoelectric laminated plate. The three-dimensional (3D) elasticity equations and the Reissner mixed variational theorem (RMVT) are employed to improve the precision of interlaminar shear stresses. The 3D elasticity solutions and results obtained from other models are used to evaluate the proposed model. Furthermore, this study thoroughly investigates the effect of several significant parameters on the deformations and stresses of the MFC piezoelectric plates with reinforcements.