The nonlinear dynamic and vibration behaviors of a cantilevered carbon nanotube-reinforced composite trapezoidal plate with two surface-bonded piezoelectric layers as an actuator in micro air vehicles are considered in this article. The plate is reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes and is exposed to subsonic airflow under combined parametric and external excitations. The large deflection von Karman plate assumptions and the classical laminated plate theory are applied to derive the governing equations of the motion of the piezoelectric nanocomposite laminated trapezoidal plate by using Hamilton's principle. The geometry of the trapezoidal plate is mapped into a rectangular computational domain. The Galerkin's approach is used for transforming the nonlinear partial differential equations of motion into nonlinear two-degrees-of-freedom ordinary differential equations of cubic nonlinearities. The case of 1:3 internal resonance and primary resonance is considered, and the multiple scales method is employed. The aerodynamic pressure distribution formula is modeled by linear potential flow theory. The frequency and time history responses and phase portrait in free forced vibrations are obtained to analyze the nonlinear dynamic behavior of the plate. The effects of different parameters such as the plate geometry, volume fraction of carbon nanotubes, and different excitations on the nonlinear vibration of the thin laminated plate are also discussed. A complex softening nonlinearity with two peaks in the higher mode is observed in frequency response curves. The influence of electrical excitation with several amplitudes and frequencies on dynamic stability is investigated using time response curves.

No abstract

In recent years, piezoelectric actuators have been extensively utilized in novel technologies such as insect-sized micro air vehicles. Utilization of common piezoceramics and high performance nanocomposite materials coupled with special geometry like trapezoidal plates which are driven at high electric field yields suitable actuators for use in such applications. First, in this paper the nonlinear vibrations of the carbon nanotube reinforced composites cantilever trapezoidal plate with two surface-bonded piezoelectric layers is modeled in accordance to classical laminate plate theory and large deflection Von Karman type equations for the geometric nonlinearity by using the Hamilton’s principle. The geometry of trapezoidal plate is mapped into rectangular computational domain. Second, the Galerkin discretization method is used for changing the partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. Finally, the governing equations of the motion of piezoelectric laminated carbon nano-tube reinforced composite trapezoidal actuator with cubic nonlinearities under the external excitation and strong electric field with considering electroelastic and electrostrictive effects, is modeled and the linear natural frequency of transversal deflection is obtained.

In this study, an analytical approach is presented to analyze the bifurcations and nonlinear dynamics of a cantilevered piezoelectric nanocomposite trapezoidal actuator subjected to two-frequency parametric excitations in the presence of subsonic airflow. The assumption of uniformly distributed single-walled carbon nanotubes along the thickness is taken into the consideration. The governing equations are built by the von-Karman nonlinear strain-displacement relations to consider the geometrical nonlinearity and the linear potential flow theory. The present study focuses on a specific resonance case deals with the occurrence of simultaneous resonances in the principal parametric resonance of the first mode and combination of the parametric resonance of the difference type involving two modes. The multiple scales method is employed to obtain the four nonlinear averaged equations which are solved by using the Runge-Kutta method. Moreover, the frequency-response curves, bifurcation diagrams, time history responses, and phase portrait are obtained to find the nonlinear dynamic responses of the plate. The effects of the amplitude of piezoelectric excitation, piezoelectric detuning parameter, and aerodynamic pressure are also studied. The results indicate that, the chaotic, quasi-periodic and periodic motions of the plate exist under certain conditions and the variation of controlling parameters can change the form of motions of the nanocomposite piezoelectric trapezoidal thin plate.