Nonlinear flexural analysis of sandwich beam with multi walled carbon nanotube reinforced composite sheet under thermo-mechanical loading

Nonlinear flexural analysis of sandwich composite beam with multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) reinforced composite face sheet and bottom sheet under the thermo-mechanically induced loading using finite element method is carried out. Solution of current bending analysis is performed using Newton's Raphson approach by using higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and non-linearity with Von Karman kinematics. The sandwich laminated composite beam is subjected to uniform, linear and nonlinear varying temperature distribution through thickness of the beam. The sandwich beam with MWCNT reinforced composite facesheet and bottom sheet is subjected to point, uniformly distributed (UDL), hydrostatic and sinusoidal loading. The two phase matrix is utilized with E-Glass fiber to form three phase composite face sheet and bottom sheet by Halpin-Tsai model. The static bending analysis is performed for evaluating the transverse central deflection of three and five layered sandwich composite beam. Transverse central deflection is measured by varying CNT volume fraction, uniformly distributed, linearly and nonlinear varying temperature distribution, thickness ratio, boundary condition, number of walls of carbon nanotube by using interactive MATLAB code.