Mechanical Buckling of Thick Composite Plates Reinforced with Randomly Oriented, Straight, Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Resting on an Elastic Foundation using the Finite Strip Method

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the mechanical buckling analysis of thick composite plates under straight single-walled carbon nanotubes reinforcement with uniform distribution and random orientations resting on an elastic foundation. To develop the fundamental equations, the finite strip method, along with third-order shear deformation theory, is employed, and the total potential energy is minimized, which leads to an eigenvalue problem. The elastic foundation is modeled by classical and two-parameter simulations. For deriving the effective modulus of composite plates reinforced with carbon nanotubes, a method is used in which each straight carbon nanotube is modeled as a fiber with transversely isotropic elastic properties. The results of the numerical experiments, including the critical buckling loads for thick rectangular composite plates reinforced by carbon nanotubes with various boundary conditions and different volume fractions of nanotubes, are provided, and the positive effect of using carbon nanotubes reinforcement in mechanical buckling of plates is illustrated.