NURBS-based thermal buckling analysis of graphene platelet reinforced composite laminated skew plates

A nonuniform rational B-spline isogeometric finite element formulation is presented in this research to analyze the thermal buckling behavior of composite laminated skew plates reinforced by graphene platelets. Formulation is based on the first-order shear deformation plate theory. It is assumed that each layer of the composite laminated plate may have different volume fraction of graphene platelets leading to a through-the-thickness piecewise functionally graded medium. The equivalent properties of the plate are obtained by means of the Halpin-Tsai rule. The developed solution method may be used for arbitrary combinations of boundary conditions. The accuracy of the developed formulation is depicted via comparison studies with respect to the available data in the open literature. Novel numerical results are also given to show the effects of volume fraction of graphene platelets, distributed patterns of graphene platelets, and geometric characteristics of the skew plate.