Mechanical buckling analysis of functionally graded power-based and carbon nanotubes-reinforced composite plates and curved panels

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the mechanical buckling behavior of functionally graded materials and carbon nanotubes-reinforced composite plates and curved panels. The governing equations are established using a double directors finite element shell model which induces a high-order distribution of the displacement field and takes into account the effect of transverse shear deformations. The effective material properties of functionally graded materials are estimated using a power law distribution and those of nanocomposites by an extended rule of mixture with some efficiency parameters. Uniform and four profiles of carbon nanotubes are considered to describe the distribution of these reinforcements through the thickness of the nanocomposite shell structure. A comparison study of the present results with those available in the literature is carried out for the isotropic case in order to prove the validity as well as the accuracy of the present model. Then, the results are extended to functionally graded materials and nanocomposites. The results reveal that the critical buckling load of plates and curved panels can be significantly increased as a result of a functionally graded reinforcement. They also show that the mechanical buckling behavior of such structures is significantly influenced by the plate aspect ratio, the length-to-thickness ratio, radius-to-thickness ratio, boundary conditions, power law index as well as the carbon nanotubes profiles and their volume fractions.