Nonlinear analysis of thermal–mechanical bending of laminated composite shallow arches reinforced with GPLs

Abstract

The current research presents an analysis on the nonlinear thermal and mechanical bending problems of nanocomposite arches reinforced by graphene platelets. The graphene nanofillers are distributed through the thickness of the composite arch as the uniform or functionally graded patterns. Thermo-mechanical properties of the nanocomposite arch are evaluated using the Halpin–Tsai rule of mixtures approach. The multi-layered thick arch with shallow curvature is assumed to rest on an elastic nonlinear medium. Equilibrium equations of the assumed arch are obtained using the principle of virtual work and considering the third-order shear deformation theory with the von Kármán type of nonlinearity. The nonlinear governing equations are solved for the nanocomposite arch with immovable simply-supported and clamped–clamped boundaries by using a perturbation-based technique. Different numerical results are presented in this paper to evaluate the effects of curvature ratio, slenderness ratio, elastic medium, and the weight fraction and distribution pattern of GPLs on the thermal and mechanical bending behaviors of composite arches.