Guided waves propagation in sandwich cylindrical structures with functionally graded graphene-epoxy core and piezoelectric surface layers

Abstract

As an ideal reinforcing nanofiller, graphene platelets (GPLs) can significantly improve physical properties of nanocomposites, which have attracted considerable attention for design and development of advanced lightweight nanocomposite structures in engineering. In this paper, a sandwich cylindrical structure is considered for dispersion properties of wave propagation by axisymmetric isogeometric analysis (IGA). The sandwich structure is composed of a functionally graded (FG) nanocomposite core and piezoelectric surface layers. Graphene platelets are dispersed in the interlayer by three typical distribution patterns through the thickness. In virtue of the symmetry and the advantages of isogeometric analysis, the sandwich cylindrical structure can be described by one-dimensional representation along the radial direction. Based on Hamilton’s principle, parameterized governing equation for wave propagation is obtained with the non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS), which leads to an second-order eigenvalue problem. The modified wave finite element (WFE) method and the Chebyshev spectral element (SE) method are utilized to verify the reliability and accuracy of this approach. Then, the effects of several significant parameters of GPLs and geometric sizes of the sandwich structure on wave propagation characteristics are discussed in details. The results of this study are beneficial to deeply understanding and control of wave propagation in advanced piezoelectric composites for the applications in structural health monitoring and nondestructive evaluation.

Electro-mechanical coupling model and interlaminar stress analysis of laminated plates containing GSR actuator

“…Extensive scholarly endeavors have been dedicated to the rigorous investigation of the prognostication of displacements, stress distributions, natural frequencies, and critical load assessments within sandwich and laminated structures featuring diverse categories of actuators. This research domain has been extensively explored in the existing academic literature [29][30][31][32][33]. Additionally, a lot of aeronautical functionally graded structures reinforced with graphene [34] are actively controlled by utilizing various piezoelectric materials.…”

An Alternative Electro-Mechanical Finite Formulation for Functionally Graded Graphene-Reinforced Composite Beams with Macro-Fiber Composite Actuator

“…The free vibration of FG-GRC sandwich plates that were enclosed by piezoelectric layers was investigated by Majidi-Mozafari et al [62]. The wave-characteristic analysis of cylindrical FG-GRC sandwich structures with piezoelectric surface layers was reported by Li and Han [63,64]. Khayat at al.…”