Thermal effects on nonlinear dynamic characteristics of polymer-CNT-fiber multiscale nanocomposite structures

In the present study, nonlinear dynamic response of polymer-CNT-fiber multiscale nanocomposite plate resting on elastic foundations in thermal environments using the finite element method is performed. In this regard, the governing equations are derived based on Inverse Hyperbolic Shear Deformation Theory and von Kármán geometrical nonlinearity. Three type of distribution of temperature through the thickness of the plate namely, uniform linear and nonlinear are considered. The considered element is C1-continuous with 15 DOF at each node. The effective material properties of the multiscale composite are calculated using Halpin-Tsai equations and fiber micromechanics in hierarchy. The carbon nanotubes are assumed to be uniformly distributed and randomly oriented through the epoxy resin matrix. Five types of impulsive loads are considered, namely the step, sudden, triangular, half-sine and exponential pulses. After examining the validity of the present work, the effects of the weight percentage of SWCNTs and MWCNTs, nanotube aspect ratio, volume fraction of fibers, plate aspect, temperature, elastic foundation parameters, distribution of temperature and shape of impulsive load on nonlinear dynamic response of CNT reinforced multi-phase laminated composite plate are studied in details.