Free vibration analysis of laminated FG-CNT reinforced composite rectangular plates using the kp-Ritz method

This paper presents the first-known vibration analysis of thin-to-moderately thick laminated functionally graded carbon nanotube (FG-CNT) reinforced composite rectangular plates. The laminated plate is composed of perfectly bonded CNT-reinforced functionally graded layers. Different distributions of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) through the thickness of layers are considered; uniform and three kinds of functionally graded distributions of carbon nanotubes along the thickness direction of plates. Using the extended rule of mixture, material properties of the laminated nanocomposite plates are estimated. The present formulation is based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and the analysis is carried out using the kp-Ritz method. In this study, the effects of the volume fractions of CNTs, plate width-to-thickness ratio, plate aspect ratio, distribution type of CNTs and boundary conditions on the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the laminated FG-CNT reinforced composite plates. Besides, the effects of number of layers and lamination angle are also examined.