Thermoelastic Analysis of FG-CNT Reinforced Shear Deformable Composite Plate Under Various Loadings

Abstract

In the present paper, the flexural behavior of functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) plate is investigated under the combined thermo-mechanical load. The carbon nanotube reinforced composite plate has been modeled mathematically based on the higher order shear deformation theory. The governing differential equation of the FG-CNTRC plate is obtained using the variational method and discretized using the suitable isoparametric finite element steps and solved numerically through a computer code developed in MATLAB environment. The material properties of the carbon nanotube reinforced composite plate are assumed to be temperature dependent and graded in the thickness direction using different grading rules. The validity and the convergence behavior of the presently proposed numerical model have been checked by comparing the responses with results available in published literature and subsequent simulation model developed in ANSYS. The effect of various design parameters (aspect ratios, support conditions, thickness ratios, volume fractions, temperature load and types of grading) on the static, stress and deformation behavior of the FG-CNTRC plate are examined under the influence of different types of loading (uniformly distributed load, sinusoidally distributed load, uniformly distributed line load, sinusoidally distributed line load and point load) and discussed detail.