Three-dimensional free vibration analysis of carbon nanotube-reinforced composite plates withsurface-bonded piezoelectric layers using RMVT-based finite layer methods

Abstract

A unified formulation of finite layer methods (FLMs) based on the Reissner’s mixed variational theorem (RMVT) is developed for the three-dimensional (3D) dynamic responses of simply-supported functionally graded (FG) carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (CNTRC) plates with surface-bonded piezoelectric sensor and actuator layers and closed- and open-circuit surface conditions In the formulation the plate is divided into a number of finite rectangular layers in which the trigonometric functions and Lagrange polynomials are used to interpolate the in- and out-of-plane variations of the primary field variables of each individual layer respectively such as the elastic displacement transverse shear and normal stress electric potential and normal electric displacement (flux) components The relevant orders used for expansion of these variables in the thickness coordinate can be freely chosen such as linear quadratic or cubic ones Four different through-thickness distributions of carbon nanotubes in the CNTRC layer are considered and the effective material properties of the layer are estimated using the rule of mixtures The accuracy and convergence rate of the frequency parameters of the sandwiched hybrid CNTRC and piezoelectric plates obtained using assorted RMVT-based FLMs are assessed by comparing their solutions with the exact 3D solutions available in the literature

Date of Award	2014 Jun 25
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chih-Ping Wu (Supervisor)