Buckling analysis of circular sandwich plates with tapered cores and functionally graded carbon nanotubes-reinforced composite face sheets

• The buckling of reinforced circular sandwich plates with tapered cores is studied.
• Different distributions of CNTs in the face sheets are introduced.
• Buckling behavior is influenced by the CNTs distributions and tapering profile.

This work investigates the buckling behavior of circular sandwich plates with tapered cores and functionally graded carbon nanotube (FG-CNT) reinforced composite face sheets under uniform radial compression based on the first order shear deformation plate theory. The sandwich plate is assumed to be constituted of a pure polymer core and two FG-CNT reinforced composite layers with constant thickness whose material properties are assumed to be graded through the thickness direction. Different distributions of multi walled CNTs (MWCNTs) in the thickness direction of face sheets are introduced. Effective properties of materials are estimated through the modified form of rule of mixture. In order to determine the distribution of the prebuckling load along the radius, the membrane equation is solved using the shooting method. Subsequently, employing the pseudospectral method, the stability equations are numerically solved to evaluate the critical buckling load. Parametric studies are conducted for various types of CNTs distributions and geometrical parameters under different boundary conditions. The results show that the buckling behavior is significantly influenced by the CNTs distributions, the thickness variation profile, the aspect ratio and the face sheet-to-core thickness ratio. Some conclusions are drawn on the parametric studies with respect to the buckling characteristics.