Electro-thermo-mechanical responses of laminated smart nanocomposite moderately thick plates containing carbon nanotube - A multi-scale modeling

Bending analysis of laminated carbon nanotube (CNT) piezo-nanocomposite moderately thick rectangular plates is presented by a multi-scale approach. Firstly, a unit cell based micromechanical model is developed to obtain the electro-thermo-mechanical behavior of material to transfer to the structure scale. The nanocomposite representative volume element consists of three phases, including CNT, piezoelectric Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) matrix and an interphase representing the CNT/PVDF van-der Waals interaction. The matrix is also polarized through the plate thickness. The macro-scale analysis of plate is performed based on the first order shear deformation theory via implementing the finite element method. Good agreements are reported for the presented results compared with the available results in literature and other modeling strategies at both the micro and macro levels. Also, the results of the mesh sensitivity analysis at both the micro and macro scales guarantee the model accuracy and low-computational cost. The effects of the nano-scale parameters, including the CNT content, aspect ratio, packing and the interphase characteristics are examined on the response of smart plates with different dimensions, supports and loadings. The results reveal that the effects of the CNT aspect ratio and the interphase thickness on the plate response are more pronounced at high values of the plate width-to-thickness ratio.