Size-dependent thermomechanical critical loads of GPL-reinforced nanobeams

Abstract

The effect of graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs) as a nanofillers’ rein- forcement is studied on the thermomechanical buckling loads of a reinforced composite nanobeam. The virtual work principle is used to derive governing equations of a shear deformable model. Effec- tive mechanical and thermal properties are computed based on the Halpin–Tsai model for various patterns of distribution. A solution pro- cedure is developed to find thermal and mechanical buckling loads. A parametric analysis is provided to study the influence of significant parameters such as various distributions of GPLs, weight fractions of GPLs, opening angle, nonlocal parameter, and some geometric parameters of GPLs such as the number of layers on the mechanical and thermal buckling loads. Before the presentation of full numer- ical results, comprehensive comparisons with previous references are presented for validation. A decrease in the stiffness of reinforced curved nanobeam is observed as the opening angle increases lead- ing to a major decrease in thermal and mechanical buckling loads. The effect of various reinforcement distributions yields the con- clusion that Pattern 3 and Pattern 2 give the largest and smallest mechanical and thermal buckling loads, respectively.