buckling of thin composite plates reinforced with randomly oriented, straight singlewalled carbon nanotubes using B3-Spline finite strip method

This paper is devoted to the buckling analysis of thin composite plates under straight single-walled carbon nanotubes reinforcement with uniform distribution and random orientations. In order to develop the fundamental equations, the B3-Spline finite strip method along with the classical platetheory (CPT) is employed and the total potential energy is minimized which leads to an eigenvalueproblem. For deriving the effective modulus of thin composite plates reinforced with carbonnanotubes, the Mori-Tanaka method is used in which each straight carbon nanotube is modeled as afiber with transversely isotropic elastic properties. The numerical results including the criticalbuckling loads for rectangular thin composite plates reinforced by carbon nanotubes with various boundary conditions and different volume fractions of nanotubes are provided and the positive effectof using carbon nanotubes reinforcement in buckling of thin plates is illustrated

Keywords:

mechanical buckling , thin composite plates , single-walled carbon nanotubes , B3-Spline finite strip method