Static and dynamic instability analysis of tapered CNTRC sandwich plates under uniform and non-uniform in-plane loadings using spline finite strip method

This paper presents the buckling analysis of rectangular sandwich plates with pure polymeric tapered cores and functionally graded carbon nanotube (FG-CNT) reinforced composite face sheets under static and harmonic dynamic loads. One uniform and four linearly-varying patterns are considered for the applied in-plane loads. The effective material properties of face sheets, in which the polymeric matrix is reinforced with aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT), are estimated using the extended rule of mixture. A higher-order zigzag shear deformation theory, which has the same number of dependent unknowns as the first-order theory, is employed to express the plate's displacement field. The governing equations are derived using Hamilton's principle and discretized by the spline finite strip method. The dynamic instability regions of plates with uniform and variable thickness are obtained by employing Bolotin's method. The accuracy of the present method is demonstrated by considering the problems for which solutions are available. A detailed numerical study is conducted to examine and compare the effects of different parameters, including the taper angle, type of the applied in-plane load, static and dynamic load factors, length-to-width ratios, the volume fraction of CNT, distribution pattern of CNTs along the thickness direction, temperature, and boundary conditions on the behavior of sandwich plate.