Isogeometric thermal buckling analysis of GPL reinforced composite laminated folded plates

Abstract

This work presents an isogeometric formulation to investigate thermal buckling behavior of laminated composite folded plates reinforced with graphene platelets (GPLs). The folded plate geometry is divided by two patches and then the formulation is conducted within each patch. The volume fraction of GPLs in each patch may be the same or different from layer to layer which results in a discontinuous functionally graded (FG) laminated folded plate. The equivalent thermomechanical properties of each patch are evaluated by the Halpin-Tsai rule. Based on a logarithmic higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT), the energy formulation of each patch is derived. Then, the isogeometric analysis (IGA) is established to construct the thermal stability equation of each patch. Thereupon, an appropriate coordinate transformation and then the bending strip method (BSM) are employed to develop the final eigenvalue problem. The convergence behavior and precision of the present model are examined by comparing the computed results in the limit case of the flat plate with those available in the open literature. Finally, an in-depth parametric study is conducted to study the effects of all related parameters on the thermal buckling behavior of the graphene platelets reinforced composite (GPLRC) laminated folded plates.