Post buckling responses of carbon nanotubes’ fiber reinforced and nanoclay modified polymer matrix hybrid composite plate under in-plane buckling load using the higher order shear deformation theory

Abstract

The buckling response of carbon nanotubes’ fibers (CNTs’ fibers) reinforced and nanoclay modified polymer matrix hybrid nanocomposite plates under in-plane buckling loads (IBLs) is studied using the efficient finite element method (FEM) based on a higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT). The conventional carbon fibers are reinforced in polymer matrix materials of cross-ply and angle-ply CNTs’ fibers reinforced and nanoclay modified polymer hybrid nanocomposite plates. The material properties are discussed using modified Halpin-Tsai relationships. An interactive MATLAB program based on FEM is developed to evaluate the critical buckling load (CBL) of a hybrid nanocomposite plate through a minimum potential energy approach. The hybrid nanocomposite plates subjected to in-plane buckling loads (IBLs) are studied in detail for their linear and nonlinear responses with respect to the critical buckling load (CBL) and variations in (a) load ratio of the laminated hybrid plate, (b) amplitude ratio, (c) carbon nanotubes’ fibers and nanoclays’ particles, (d) inplane buckling loads such as uniaxial, biaxial, shear, uniaxial with shear, and biaxial with shear, (e) stacking sequences, (f) buckling modes, and (g) length-to-diameter ratio. The results of the simulations are in fairly good agreement with the previously published sources.