A comprehensive analytical study on functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite plates

This paper presents a model which is effective and simple based upon Second Order Shear Deformation Theory (SSDT) to comprehensive study of Functionally Graded Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Composite (FG-CNTRC) plates including size effects for the first time. Also it is the first time that the size dependent static, stability and dynamic response of FG-CNTRC plates considering Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation effects are investigated. It is assumed that the material properties of FG-CNTRC are varied through the thickness direction using four different distributions of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). In order to include the size effects in our modeling, the nonlocal elasticity theory presented by Eringen is utilized. The influences of different parameters such as volume fraction of carbon nanotubes, nonlocality and elastic foundation effects on the response of FG-CNTRC plates are studied. Numerical results prove high accuracy and reliability of the present method in comparison with other available numerical or analytical methods. (C) 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.