• Advances in nano research
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.421-433
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• 2023

In the present paper, the influences of the variation of exponent of volume fraction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the natural frequencies (NFs) of the carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (CNTRC) beams under four different boundary conditions (BCs) are investigated. The single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are assumed to be aligned and dispersed in a polymeric matrix with various reinforcing patterns, according to the variation of exponent of volume fraction of CNTs for functionally graded (FG) reinforcements. Besides, uniform distribution (UD) of reinforcement is also considered to analyze the influence of the non-linear (NL) variation of the reinforcement of CNTs. Using Hamilton's principle and third-order shear deformation theory (TSDT), the equations of motion of the CNTRC beam are derived. Under four different BCs, the resulting equations are solved analytically. To verify the present formulation, comparison investigations are conducted. To examine the impacts of several factors on the NFs of the CNTRC beams, numerical examples and some benchmark results are presented.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.405-422
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• 2018

In this research, experimental tensile test and manufacturing of carbon nanotube reinforced composite beam (CNTRC) is presented. Also, bending, buckling, and vibration analysis of CNTRC based on various beam theories such as Euler-Bernoulli, Timoshenko and Reddy beams are considered. At first, the experimental tensile tests are carried out for CNTRC and composite beams in order to obtain mechanical properties and then using Hamilton's principle the governing equations of motion are derived for Euler Bernoulli, Timoshenko and Reddy theories. The results have a good agreement with the obtained results by similar researches and it is shown that adding just two percent of carbon nanotubes increases dimensionless fundamental frequency and critical buckling load as well as decreases transverse deflection of composite beams. Also, the influences of different manufacturing processes such as hand layup and industrial methods using vacuum pump on composite properties are investigated. In these composite beams, glass fibers used in an epoxy matrix and for producing CNTRC, CNTs are applied as reinforcement particles. Applying two percent of CNTs leads to increase the mechanical properties and increases natural frequencies and critical buckling load and decreases deflection. The obtained natural frequencies and critical buckling load by theoretical method are higher than other methods, because there are some inevitable errors in industrial and hand layup method. Also, the minimum deflection occurs for theoretical methods, in bending analysis. In this study, Young's and shear modulli as well as density are obtained by experimental test and have not been used from the results of other researches. Then the theoretical analysis such as bending, buckling and vibration are considered by using the obtained mechanical properties of this research.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.4
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• pp.439-455
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• 2019

This research deals with thermo-electro-mechanical buckling analysis of the sandwich nano-beams with face-sheets made of functionally graded carbon nano-tubes reinforcement composite (FG-CNTRC) based on the nonlocal strain gradient elasticity theory (NSGET) considering various higher-order shear deformation beam theories (HSDBT). The sandwich nano-beam with FG-CNTRC face-sheets is subjected to thermal and electrical loads while is resting on Pasternak's foundation. It is assumed that the material properties of the face-sheets change continuously along the thickness direction according to different patterns for CNTs distribution. In order to include coupling of strain and electrical field in equation of motion, the nonlocal non-classical nano-beam model contains piezoelectric effect. The governing equations of motion are derived using Hamilton principle based on HSDBTs and NSGET. The differential quadrature method (DQM) is used to calculate the mechanical buckling loads of sandwich nano-beam as well as critical voltage and temperature rising. After verification with validated reference, comprehensive numerical results are presented to investigate the influence of important parameters such as various HSDBTs, length scale parameter (strain gradient parameter), the nonlocal parameter, the CNTs volume fraction, Pasternak's foundation coefficients, various boundary conditions, the CNTs efficiency parameter and geometric dimensions on the buckling behaviors of FG sandwich nano-beam. The numerical results indicate that, the amounts of the mechanical critical load calculated by PSDBT and TSDBT approximately have same values as well as ESDBT and ASDBT. Also, it is worthy noted that buckling load calculated by aforementioned theories is nearly smaller than buckling load estimated by FSDBT. Also, similar aforementioned structure is used to building the nano/micro oscillators.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.445-458
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• 2024

The objective of this paper is to present free vibration and static stability analyses of rotating composite beams reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) under uniform thermal loads. Beam structural equations and CNT-reinforced composite (CNTRC) beam formulations are derived based on Timoshenko beam theory (TBT). The temperature-dependent properties of the beam material, such as the elastic modulus, shear modulus, and material density, are assumed to vary over the thickness according to the rule of mixture. The beam material is modeled as a mixture of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in an isotropic matrix. The SWCNTs are aligned and distributed in the isotropic matrix with different patterns of reinforcement, namely the UD (uniform), FG-O, FG-V, FG- Λ and FG-X distributions, where FG-V and FG- Λ are asymmetric patterns. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effects of several essential parameters, including the rotational speed, hub radius, effective material properties, slenderness ratio, boundary conditions, thermal force, and moments due to temperature variation. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study represents the first attempt at the finite element modeling of rotating CNTRC Timoshenko beams under a thermal environment. The results are presented in tables and figures for both symmetric and asymmetric distribution patterns, and can be used as benchmarks for further validation.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.319-332
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• 2018

This paper investigates the free vibration of geometrically imperfect functionally graded car-bon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) beams that are integrated with two sur-face-bonded piezoelectric layers and subjected to a combined action of a uniform temperature rise, a constant actuator voltage and an in-plane force. The material properties of FG-CNTRCs are assumed to be temperature-dependent and vary continuously across the thick-ness. A generic imperfection function is employed to simulate various possible imperfections with different shapes and locations in the beam. The governing equations that account for the influence of initial geometric imperfection are derived based on the first-order shear deformation theory. The postbuckling configurations of FG-CNTRC hybrid beams are determined by the differential quadrature method combined with the modified Newton-Raphson technique, after which the fundamental frequencies of hybrid beams in the postbuckled state are obtained by a standard eigenvalue algorithm. The effects of CNT distribution pattern and volume fraction, geometric imperfection, thermo-electro-mechanical load, as well as boundary condition are examined in detail through parametric studies. The results show that the fundamental frequency of an imperfect beam is higher than that of its perfect counterpart. The influence of geometric imperfection tends to be much more pronounced around the critical buckling temperature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.6
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• pp.771-781
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• 2018

This study deals with free vibrations analysis with stretching effect of nanocomposite beams reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) resting on an elastic foundation. Four different carbon nanotubes (CNTs) distributions including uniform and three types of functionally graded distributions of CNTs through the thickness are considered. The rule of mixture is used to describe the effective material properties of the nanocomposite beams. The significant feature of this model is that, in addition to including the shear deformation effect and stretching effect it deals with only 4 unknowns without including a shear correction factor. The governing equations are derived through using Hamilton's principle. Natural frequencies are obtained for nanocomposite beams. The mathematical models provided in this paper are numerically validated by comparison with some available results. New results of free vibration analyses of CNTRC beams based on the present theory with stretching effect is presented and discussed in details. The effects of different parameters of the beam on the vibration responses of CNTRC beam are discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2021

This work focused on the novel numerical tool for the bending responses of carbon nanotube reinforced composites (CNTRC) beams. The higher order shear deformation beam theory (HSDT) is used to determine strain-displacement relationships. A new exponential function was introduced into the carbon nanotube (CNT) volume fraction equation to show the effect of the CNT distribution on the CNTRC beams through displacements and stresses. To determine the mechanical properties of CNTRCs, the rule of the mixture was employed by assuming that the single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)are aligned and distributed in the matrix. The governing equations were derived by Hamilton's principle, and the mathematical models presented in this work are numerically provided to verify the accuracy of the present theory. The effects of aspect ratio (l/d), CNT volume fraction (Vcnt), and the order of exponent (n) on the displacement and stresses are presented and discussed in detail. Based on the analytical results. It turns out that the increase of the exponent degree (n) makes the X-beam stiffer and the exponential CNTs distribution plays an indispensable role to improve the mechanical properties of the CNTRC beams.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.207-227
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• 2017

In this paper Timoshenko beam theory is employed to investigate the vibration characteristics of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) Beams with a stiff core in thermal environment. The material characteristic of carbon nanotubes (CNT) are supposed to change in the thickness direction in a functionally graded form. They can also be calculated through a micromechanical model where the CNT efficiency parameter is determined by matching the elastic modulus of CNTRCs calculated from the rule of mixture with those gained from the molecular dynamics simulations. The differential transform method (DTM) which is established upon the Taylor series expansion is one of the effective mathematical techniques employed to the differential governing equations of sandwich beams. Effects of carbon nanotube volume fraction, slenderness ratio, core-to-face sheet thickness ratio, different thermal environment and various boundary conditions on the free vibration characteristics of FG-CNTRC sandwich beams are studied. It is observed that vibration response of FG-CNTRC sandwich beams is prominently influenced by these parameters.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.65-77
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• 2017

The purpose of this research is to study the nonlinear free vibration and post-buckling analysis of functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) beams resting on a nonlinear elastic foundation. Uniformly and functionally graded distributions of single walled carbon nanotubes as reinforcing phase are considered in the polymeric matrix. The modified form of rule of mixture is used to estimate the material properties of CNTRC beams. The governing equations are derived employing Euler-Bernoulli beam theory along with energy method and Hamilton's principle. Applying von $K\acute{a}rm\acute{a}n's$ strain-displacement assumptions, the geometric nonlinearity is taken into consideration. The developed governing equations with quadratic and cubic nonlinearities are solved using variational iteration method (VIM) and the analytical expressions and numerical results are obtained for vibration and stability analysis of nanocomposite beams. The presented comparative results are indicative for the reliability, accuracy and fast convergence rate of the solution. Eventually, the effects of different parameters, such as foundation stiffness, volume fraction and distributions of carbon nanotubes, slenderness ratio, vibration amplitude, coefficients of elastic foundation and boundary conditions on the nonlinear frequencies, vibration response and post-buckling loads of FG-CNTRC beams are examined. The developed analytical solution provides direct insight into parametric studies of particular parameters of the problem.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.267-276
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• 2023

The main purpose of the current research is to develop an efficient two variables trigonometric shear deformation beam theory to investigate the buckling behavior of symmetric and non-symmetric functionally graded carbon nanotubes reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) beam resting on an elastic foundation with various boundary conditions. The proposed theory obviates the use to shear correction factors as it satisfies the parabolic variation of through-thickness shear stress distribution. The composite beam is made of a polymeric matrix reinforced by aligned and distributed single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with different patterns of reinforcement. The material properties of the FG-CNTRC beam are estimated by using the rule of mixture. The governing equilibrium equations are solved by using new analytical solutions based on the Galerkin method. The robustness and accuracy of the proposed analytical model are demonstrated by comparing its results with those available by other researchers in the existing literature. Moreover, a comprehensive parametric study is presented and discussed in detail to show the effects of CNTs volume fraction, distribution patterns of CNTs, boundary conditions, length-to-thickness ratio, and spring constant factors on the buckling response of FG-CNTRC beam. Some new referential results are reported for the first time, which will serve as a benchmark for future research.