Thermomechanical Analysis of Large Deflection of Shear Deformable FG-CNT
Reinforced Composite Beams Using Perturbation Technique
Abstract
Present investigation deals with the geometrically non-linear bending
response of functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite
(FG-CNTRC) beams. It is assumed that beam is resting on a three
parameter elastic foundation . Uniform thermal field is also included
into the formulation and properties are considered as temperature
dependent. Distribution of CNTs in the beam may be uniform or
functionally graded according to linear distribution of volume fraction
of CNTs across the thickness. The equivalent properties of the composite
media are obtained with the aid of the refined rule of mixtures approach
which is calibrated with the available data based on the molecular
dynamics simulations. The governing equations of the beam are obtained
based on first order, third order and sinusoidal theories. To capture
the large deformations, the von K\’arm\’an
type of kinematic assumptions are included. Two types of boundary
conditions are included which are immovable pinned and immovable
clamped. The established equations are reformulated and transferred into
dimensionless presentation. After that, using the powerful two step
perturbation technique, closed form expressions are provided to trace
the non-linear load-deflection paths of the beam. Results of this study
are compared with the available data in the open literature. After that
novel results are provided to discuss the effects of boundary
conditions, temperature change, foundation stiffness, slenderness ratio,
CNT volume fraction and distribution profiles. It is shown that graded
pattern of CNTs and volume fraction of CNT are two important factors on
the geometrically nonlinear response of the CNTRC beam.