Nonlinear forced vibration of functionally graded hybrid three-phase nanocomposite toroidal shell segments reinforced by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs)

Abstract

This study proposes a unique three-phase functionally graded (FG) hybrid nanocomposite material reinforcing the toroidal shell segments to investigate the nonlinear forced vibration using Reddy's higher-order shear deformation theory, von Karman geometrical nonlinearity and Stein-McElman's assumption along with the Hamilton principle. The examined toroidal shell's material consists of polymeric resin, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene platelets (GPLs) as nanocomposites. The material properties have been derived based on a modified Halpin-Tsai micromechanical model. Four distribution patterns have been studied: uniform (UD), FG-X, FG-O, and FG-V. The continuous distribution of GPLs and CNTs leads to inhomogeneous position-dependent properties throughout the shell thickness. The obtained differential equations of motion have been reduced to ordinary equations using Galerkin's technique. A multi-scales method (MSM) is used to estimate a closed-form solution representing the frequency-amplitude relation, and the state space representation is used along with numerical fourth-order Runge Kutta method (RK4) to obtain the nonlinear dynamic response of the toroidal shell. The accuracy of the current results obtained has been verified by comparing them with the relevant literature and numerical results using (RK4). In addition, the influence of both GPLs and CNTs weight fractions, nanofillers’ distribution types, longitudinal and circumferential wave numbers, elastic foundation parameters, static axial compression load, transverse excitation load, damping ratio, geometrical characteristics of the toroidal shell on the dimensionless natural frequency, nonlinear primary resonance (frequency-amplitude curve), and nonlinear dynamic response are carefully studied. The results found that combining (GPLs & CNTs) into the shell's matrix improves performance, especially in concave shells compared to convex ones. The FG-X pattern reduces peak resonance amplitude and improves natural frequency. A reduction of 12.3 % is observed for convex shells, and 21.5 % for concave shells compared to FG-O.