Dynamic analysis of functionally graded nanocomposite cylinders reinforced by carbon nanotube by a mesh-free method

In this paper, dynamic analysis of nanocomposite cylinders reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) subjected to an impact load was carried out by a mesh-free method. Free vibration and stress wave propagation analysis of carbon nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) cylinders are presented. In this simulation, an axisymmetric model is used. Four types of distributions of the aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered; uniform and three kinds of functionally graded (FG) distributions along the radial direction of cylinder. Material properties are estimated by a micro mechanical model. In the mesh-free analysis, moving least squares (MLSs) shape functions are used for approximation of displacement field in the weak form of motion equation and the transformation method was used for the imposition of essential boundary conditions. Effects of the kind of distribution and volume fractions of carbon nanotubes and cylinder thickness on the natural frequencies and stress wave propagation of CNTRC cylinders are investigated. Results obtained for this analysis were compared with FEM and previous published work and good agreement was seen between them. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.