• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.277-299
• /
• 2016

In this paper, free vibration, forced vibration, resonance and stress wave propagation behavior in nanocomposite plates reinforced by wavy carbon nanotube (CNT) are studied by a mesh-free method based on first order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The plates are resting on Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation and subjected to periodic or impact loading. The distributions of CNTs are considered functionally graded (FG) or uniform along the thickness and their mechanical properties are estimated by an extended rule of mixture. In the mesh-free analysis, moving least squares (MLS) shape functions are used for approximation of displacement field in the weak form of motion equation and the transformation method is used for imposition of essential boundary conditions. Effects of CNT distribution, volume fraction, aspect ratio and waviness, and also effects of elastic foundation coefficients, plate thickness and time depended loading are examined on the vibrational and stresses wave propagation responses of the nanocomposite plates reinforced by wavy CNT.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.359-367
• /
• 2017

In this work, transient heat transfer analysis of functionally graded (FG) carbon nanotube reinforced nanocomposite (CNTRC) cylinders with various essential and natural boundary conditions is investigated by a mesh-free method. The cylinders are subjected to thermal flux, convection environments and constant temperature faces. The material properties of the nanocomposite are estimated by an extended micro mechanical model in volume fraction form. The distribution of carbon nanotube (CNT) has a linear variation along the radial direction of axisymmetric cylinder. In the mesh-free analysis, moving least squares shape functions are used for approximation of temperature field in the weak form of heat transform equation and the transformation method is used for the imposition of essential boundary conditions. Newmark method is applied for solution time depended problem. The effects of CNT distribution pattern and volume fraction, cylinder thickness and boundary conditions are investigated on the transient temperature field of the nanocomposite cylinders.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.315-326
• /
• 2017

In this work, thermoelastic dynamic behavior of functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) cylinders subjected to mechanical pressure loads, uniform temperature environment or thermal gradient loads is investigated by a mesh-free method. The material properties and thermal stress wave propagation of the nanocomposite cylinders are derived after solving of the transient thermal equation and obtaining of the time history of temperature field of the cylinders. The nanocomposite cylinders are made of a polymer matrix and wavy single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The volume fraction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are assumed variable along the radial direction of the axisymmetric cylinder. Also, material properties of the polymer and CNT are assumed temperature-dependent and mechanical properties of the nanocomposite are estimated by a micro mechanical model in volume fraction form. In the mesh-free analysis, moving least squares shape functions are used to approximate temperature and displacement fields in the weak form of motion equation and transient thermal equation, respectively. Also, transformation method is used to impose their essential boundary conditions. Effects of waviness, volume fraction and distribution pattern of CNT, temperature of environment and direction of thermal gradient loads are investigated on the thermoelastic dynamic behavior of FG-CNTRC cylinders.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.711-726
• /
• 2017

In the present work, by considering the agglomeration effect of single-walled carbon nanotubes, free vibration characteristics of functionally graded (FG) nanocomposite sandwich plates resting on Pasternak foundation are presented. The volume fractions of randomly oriented agglomerated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction. To determine the effect of CNT agglomeration on the elastic properties of CNT-reinforced composites, a two-parameter micromechanical model of agglomeration is employed. In this research work, an equivalent continuum model based on the Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka approach is employed to estimate the effective constitutive law of the elastic isotropic medium (matrix) with oriented straight CNTs. The 2-D generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) as an efficient and accurate numerical tool is used to discretize the equations of motion and to implement the various boundary conditions. The proposed rectangular plates have two opposite edges simply supported, while all possible combinations of free, simply supported and clamped boundary conditions are applied to the other two edges. The benefit of using the considered power-law distribution is to illustrate and present useful results arising from symmetric and asymmetric profiles. The effects of two-parameter elastic foundation modulus, geometrical and material parameters together with the boundary conditions on the frequency parameters of the laminated FG nanocomposite plates are investigated. It is shown that the natural frequencies of structure are seriously affected by the influence of CNTs agglomeration. This study serves as a benchmark for assessing the validity of numerical methods or two-dimensional theories used to analysis of laminated plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.649-661
• /
• 2017

This paper is motivated by the lack of studies in the technical literature concerning to the influence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) waviness and aspect ratio on the vibrational behavior of functionally graded nanocomposite annular sector plates resting on two-parameter elastic foundations. The carbon nanotube-reinforced (CNTR) plate has smooth variation of CNT fraction based on the power-law distribution in the thickness direction, and the material properties are also estimated by the extended rule of mixture. In this study, the classical theory concerning the mechanical efficiency of a matrix embedding finite length fibers has been modified by introducing the tube-to-tube random contact, which explicitly accounts for the progressive reduction of the tubes' effective aspect ratio as the filler content increases. Parametric studies are carried out to highlight the influence of CNTs volume fraction, waviness and aspect ratio, boundary conditions and elastic foundation on vibrational behavior of FG-CNT thick sectorial plates. The study is carried out based on three-dimensional theory of elasticity and in contrary to two-dimensional theories, such as classical, the first- and the higher-order shear deformation plate theories, this approach does not neglect transverse normal deformations. The annular sector plate is assumed to be simply supported in the radial edges while any arbitrary boundary conditions are applied to the other two circular edges including simply supported, clamped and free. For an overall comprehension on 3-D vibration of annular sector plates, some mode shape contour plots are reported in this research work.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.23-32
• /
• 2022

In this paper, a nonlinear numerical method to solve the large deflection problem is introduced. And the non-dimensional load-deflection behavior of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) plates is parametrically investigated. The large deflection problem is formulated according to the von Kármán nonlinear theory and the (1,1,0)^* hierarchical model, and it is approximated by 2-D natural element method (NEM). The shear locking phenomenon is suppressed by the selectively reduced integration method. The nonlinear matrix equations are solved by combining the incremental loading scheme and the Newton-Raphson iteration method. The proposed method is validated from the benchmark experiments, where the propose method shows an excellent agreement with the reference methods. The nonlinear behavior of FG-CNTRC plates is evaluated in terms of the non-dimensional load-deflection curve, and it is parametrically investigated with respect to the existence/non-existence and gradient pattern of CNTs, the width-to-thickness and aspect ratios of plates and the type of boundary conditions. The non-dimensional central deflection is significantly reduced when CNTs and added, and it decreases with the volume fraction of CNTs. But, it shows a uniform increase in proportion to the width-to-thickness and aspect ratios. Both the gradient pattern of CNTs and the type of boundary conditions do also show the remarkable effects.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.19-32
• /
• 2024

Functionally graded-carbon nanotube (FG-CNT) is expected to be a new generation of materials with a wide range of potential applications in technological fields such as aerospace, defense, energy, and structural industries. In this paper, an exact finite strip method for functionally graded-carbon nanotube sandwich plates is developed using first-order shear deformation theory to get the exact natural frequencies of the plates. The face sheets of the plates are made of FG-CNT with continuous and smooth grading based on the power law index. The equations of motion have been generated based on the Hamilton principle. By extracting the exact stiffness matrix for any strip of the sandwich plate as a non-algebraic function of natural frequencies, it is possible to calculate the exact free vibration frequencies. The accuracy and efficiency of the current method is established by comparing its findings to the results of the literature works. Examples are presented to prove the efficiency of the generated method to deal with various problems, such as the influence of the length-to-height ratio, the power law index, and a core-to-face sheet thickness of the single and multi-span sandwich plates with various boundary conditions on the natural frequencies. The exact results obtained from this analysis can check the validity and accuracy of other numerical methods.

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

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.583-593
• /
• 2017

This research deals with the nonlocal temperature-dependent dynamic buckling analysis of embedded sandwich micro plates reinforced by functionally graded carbon nanotubes (FG-CNTs). The material properties of structure are assumed viscoelastic based on Kelvin-Voigt model. The effective material properties of structure are considered based on mixture rule. The elastic medium is simulated by orthotropic visco-Pasternak medium. The motion equations are derived applying Sinusoidal shear deformation theory (SSDT) in which the size effects are considered using Eringen's nonlocal theory. The differential quadrature (DQ) method in conjunction with the Bolotin's methods is applied for calculating resonance frequency and dynamic instability region (DIR) of structure. The effects of different parameters such as volume percent of CNTs, distribution type of CNTs, temperature, nonlocal parameter and structural damping on the dynamic instability of visco-system are shown. The results are compared with other published works in the literature. Results indicate that the CNTs have an important role in dynamic stability of structure and FGX distribution type is the better choice.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.713-733
• /
• 2015

In this paper, viscous fluid induced nonlinear free vibration and instability analysis of a functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (CNTRC) cylindrical shell integrated with two uniformly distributed piezoelectric layers on the top and bottom surfaces of the cylindrical shell are presented. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are selected as reinforcement and effective material properties of FG-CNTRC cylindrical shell are assumed to be graded through the thickness direction and are estimated through the rule of mixture. The elastic foundation is modeled by temperature-dependent orthotropic Pasternak medium. Considering coupling of mechanical and electrical fields, Mindlin shell theory and Hamilton's principle, the motion equations are derived. Nonlinear frequency and critical fluid velocity of sandwich structure are calculated based on differential quadrature method (DQM). The effects of different parameters such as distribution type of SWCNTs, volume fractions of SWCNTs, elastic medium and temperature gradient are discussed on the vibration and instability behavior of the sandwich structure. Results indicate that considering elastic foundation increases frequency and critical fluid velocity of system.