Experimental free vibration and tensile test results of a five-layer sandwich plate by comparing various carbon nanostructure reinforcements with SMA

Abstract

Considering to need for the sensitive and destructive industries for high stiffness and low weight, an experimental free vibration and tensile test results of a five-layer sandwich plate by comparing various carbon nano structures reinforcements with SMA is discussed. The effect of various reinforcements, including carbon nanostructures (carbon nanotubes (CNT), carbon nanorods (CNRs), Graphene platelets (GPLs)) and nitinol shape memory alloy (SMA) wire on the vibration behavior of a five-layer sandwich plate with a foam core is investigated. The purpose and novelty of this work are to compare the effect of different reinforcements on the vibrations of a five-layer plate so that by using this comparison, one can choose the best reinforcements according to the needs of the desired industry and more suitable economic conditions. Considering a 1 % weight fraction of epoxy resin, GPLs, CNTs, and CNRs increase Young's modulus of face sheets by 30 %, 25 %, and 5.8 %, respectively. In this work, a five-layer sandwich structure model can be suggested, and numerically analyzed. The special advantage novelty of this research compared to previous research is the construction of this five-layer model. This is a simple modeling structure for the construction and preliminary examination of structures with five layers experimentally. Also, the composite structure is made by the vacuum pump method, which does not have the disadvantages of the manual method, and the method is completely optimal. At first, the Young's and shear moduli of unidirectional glass fiber (UGF) are calculated by performing a tensile test. To examine all aspects of the construction of five-layer structures during construction, in this article first, the face sheets are made separately using resin, UGF, and various reinforcements, and then the layers of face sheets and the cores are connected using glue. In the following, the equations of motion for the sandwich plate are derived using refined first-order shear deformation theory (RFSDT) by employing Hamilton's principle. Using the Halpin-Tsai equation and the extended rule of mixture, the mechanical properties of the reinforced composite face sheets are obtained. According to the Brinson model, the constitutive equations of the SMA are presented. The influence of various parameters such as side ratio, thickness ratio, weight fraction of CNRs, CNTs, GPLs and SMA wire, fiber angle, and temperature changes on dimensionless fundamental frequency is also represented. Also, the natural frequency of orthotropic plates by considering reinforcements is higher than that without considering reinforcements. By increasing the aspect ratio (a/h), the dimensionless natural frequency increases, while the natural frequency decreases. For two-layer square angular asymmetric laminated sheets (-θ/θ), the minimum dimensionless natural frequency occurred at the fiber placement angle approximately equal to 26 and 64°. The highest frequency is related to the sandwich plate in that its face sheets have higher strength and stiffness because it is placed further from the middle plane. Also, the highest frequency is related to the sandwich plate, whose face sheets are reinforced with GPLs.