Nonlinear Modeling and Simulation of Carbon Nanotube Fiber Reinforced Composite Plate

Abstract

：To achieve an accurate calcultation of carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber reinforced functionally graded composite plates in the case of large deformation, a large rotation nonlinear finite element model is developed for the CNT composite plates based on the first order shear deformation (FOSD) hypothesis and the Hamilton priciple, which not only includes the fully geometrically nonlinear strian-displacement relations, but also considers the large rotation of the shell director of plates. The model is first verified by the data in the reference. The geometrically nonlinear model are then applied to calculate and analyze four different CNT distributions, uniform, O-shaped, V-shaped and X-shapeddistributions. The effects of the CNT volume fraction, the CNT distribution, width to thickness ratio and loading of CNT fiber reinforced functional gradient composite plates. The investigations show that the larger of the volume fraction of CNT the higher of the stiffness of the composite plate; for the same volume fraction, the stiffness of X-shaped CNT plate is the largest, followed by uniform and V-shaped, and O-shaped CNT plate is the weaknest. Finally, the model provides a reference for the engineering application of CNT fiber reinforced funtionally graded composite plates.