Temperature effect on free vibration response of a smart multifunctional sandwich plate

Abstract

A smart multifunctional sandwich plate with a wide range of applications can be produced by proper arrangement of its layers. This paper offers a smart multifunctional sandwich plate with one central lightweight porous layer, two middle polymer/graphene nanocomposite layers and two active faces made of a piezoceramic material. The coupled effects of temperature conditions and piezoelectric behavior on the natural frequencies of the proposed smart multifunctional sandwich plate located on elastic foundations have been studied in the current research. For the dispersions of graphene particles and pores inside host layers, different functional profiles have been considered. Moreover, graphene particles and polymeric materials with temperature-dependent material properties have been adopted. The mechanical properties of polymer/graphene nanocomposite are evaluated by employing Halpin-Tsai approach which is modified to capture nanoscale effects. Eventually, the coupled governing eigenvalue equations of the proposed smart multifunctional sandwich plate are derived using a third-order theory called TSDT and are studied by a developed meshless solution. In addition, the effects of graphene, porosity, geometric and foundation aspects on the natural frequency of the proposed smart multifunctional sandwich plate are studied. The results disclose that the natural frequencies of the proposed smart multifunctional sandwich plates are improved by embedding pores in core layer due to the remarkable reduction of structural weight. It is worth noting that nanocomposite layers can completely compensate the structural stiffness reduction caused by embedding pores in the core.