NURBS-based isogeometric thermal postbuckling analysis of temperature dependent graphene reinforced composite laminated plates

A thermal postbuckling analysis for composite laminated plates reinforced with graphene sheets is performed in this research. All of the thermomechanical properties of the composite media are assumed to be temperature dependent. Volume fraction of the graphene in each layer is assumed to be different which results in a piecewise functionally graded plate. Based on the third order shear deformation plate theory of Reddy, the total strain energy of the plate is obtained. Composite laminated plate is assumed to be under uniform temperature rise. Properties of the graphene reinforced composite media are estimated by means of a refined Haptin-Tsai approach which contains efficiency parameters to capture the size dependency of the constituents. Afterwards, a non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) based isogeometric finite element method is implemented to study the thermal postbuckling response of the graphene reinforced composite laminated plates. Thermally induced postbuckling curves of the composite plate reinforced by graphene are provided for different functionally graded patterns, aspect ratios, side to thickness ratios and boundary conditions. It is shown that, FG-X pattern of graphene reinforcement results in the highest critical buckling temperature and the lowest postbuckling deflection.