Three-dimensional free vibration of carbon nanotube-reinforced composite plates with various boundary conditions using Ritz method

In this paper, three-dimensional free vibration of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced composite rectangular plates with various boundary conditions is analyzed by developing a set of orthogonal admissible functions used in Ritz method. To validate the present analysis, numerical results were compared with those obtained in the open literature. Furthermore, the effect of CNT volume fraction, two cases of CNT distribution, boundary conditions and aspect ratio of plate on non-dimensional natural frequencies were studied. Modified rule of mixture is used to find material constants of the reinforced composite. This benchmark solution can be used to assess the accuracy of conventional two-dimensional theory. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.