Extended high order sandwich panel theory for bending analysis of sandwich beams with carbon nanotube reinforced face sheets

• Bending analysis of sandwich beam with soft core and CNTRC face sheets is presented.
• The sandwich beam with FG- X face sheets is the strongest.
• The face sheet becomes stronger whenever the surfaces of the CNTRC face sheet is CNT- rich.
• By increasing the stiffness of FG- CNTRC faces, stresses of the core are reduced.

Bending analysis of a sandwich beam with soft core and carbon nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) face sheets in the literature is presented based on Extended High order Sandwich Panel Theory (EHSAPT). Distribution of fibers through the thickness of the face sheets could be uniform or functionally graded (FG). In this theory the face sheets follow the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT). Besides, the two dimensional elasticity is used for the core. The field equations are derived via the Ritz based solution which is suitable for any essential boundary condition. The influences of boundary conditions on bending response of the sandwich panel with soft core and CNTRC face sheet are investigated. In each type of boundary condition the effect of distribution pattern of CNTRCs on many essential involved parameters of the sandwich beam with functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite (FG- CNTRC) face sheets are studied in detail. Finally, experimental result have been compared with those obtained based on developed solution method. It is concluded that, the sandwich beam with X distribution figure of face sheets is the strongest with the smallest transverse displacement, and followed by the UD, O and ∧-ones, respectively.