VIBRATION AND BUCKLING ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONALLY GRADED CARBON NANOTUBE REINFORCED COMPOSITE BEAMS

FG materials (FGMs) are known for their exceptional thermal and mechanical properties. FGMs have a smooth variation of material properties as its dimension varies. After the invention of FGM, it has replaced many existing conventional materials in distinct applications by virtue of its good thermal stability at high temperatures along with exceptional mechanical properties. These unique properties of FGM make it an outstanding material for a wide range of applications including aerospace, medicine, automobile and nuclear reactor etc. Parallelly, with the discovery of CNTs in 1991 by Iijima [1], its outstanding properties captivated a lot of scientists to work in this field. CNTs exhibit amazing mechanical properties which are ideal for reinforced composites, nano-electromechanical systems. CNTs are also known for their good thermal and electrical properties. Using CNTs with FGM offers enhanced mechanical, electrical as well as thermal properties as per the requirement.The objective of the present work is free vibration and buckling analysis of FG-CNTRCs reinforced composite beams within the framework of Timoshenko beam theory using finite element method (FEM). The material properties of the FG-CNTRCs are assumed to be graded through the thickness direction and are estimated by employing the Mori–Tanaka method. Finally, the Effects of CNTs volume fraction, orientation, distribution, slenderness ratios and boundary conditions on both natural frequency and critical buckling load are also investigated.