Meshfree dynamic analysis of functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced polymer sandwich beams under harmonic moving loads

ABSTRACT

A new generation of advanced composite materials has recently emerged through the use of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) as the reinforcing constituent in polymer matrix. In this paper, the dynamic response of polymer sandwich beams with functionally graded face sheets subject to two successive harmonic moving loads has been studied. Three different patterns of CNT’s distributions for the face sheets have been investigated: Uniform Distribution (UD), Symmetrically Functionally Graded (SFG) distribution, and Unsymmetrically Functionally Graded (USFG) distribution. A thorough study on the effects of velocity, position, excitation frequency, and the phase angles of loads has been carried out using the Radial Point Interpolation Meshfree (RPIM) method based on the 2D theory of elasticity. The SFG is found to result in the highest stiffness of all three distribution patterns. Increasing the volume fraction of the reinforcement is seen to have resulted in an increase of around 33% in the flexural rigidity of the SFG beam. Also, decreasing the frequency is seen to have suppressed the deflection of the USFG type up to 90%. The current research presents a reliable computational framework to help provide an insight into the design of an optimum sandwich structure subject to a complicated state of loading.

KEYWORDS:

• Functionally graded material
• sandwich beam
• meshfree method
• moving load
• dynamic response

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada-Discovery Grant Program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors declare that the data are available within the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada []

Notes on contributors

Alireza Sayyidmousavi

Alireza Sayyidmousavi has received his PhD from Ryerson University, Canada in mechanical engineering in 2014. He is currently working as a researcher and instructor in the department of mathematics in Ryerson University. His areas of research include applied mathematics and computational mechanics.

Mehrdad Foroutan

Mehrdad Foroutan has received his PhD in the field of mechanical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Iran in 2000. He has been working as a member of mechanical engineering department of Razi University since 2000. His research interests include static and dynamic analysis of FGM and composite structures by numerical methods, especially mesh-free methods.

Zouheir Fawaz

Zouheir Fawaz is a full Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Ryerson University. He leads a large research group of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows supported by government and industry funding. He is the founder and principal investigator of FRAMES (Facility for Research on Aerospace Materials and Engineered Structures) as well as the founder of the Ryerson Institute for Aerospace Design and Innovation. His research program focuses on topics related to the analysis, design and modeling of advanced aerospace engineering materials and structures with a focus on the characterization of the mechanical behavior of advanced composite materials.