Free vibration of carbon nanotube reinforced composite plate on point Supports using Lagrangian multipliers

Chebyshev polynomial functions are used in the Lagrangian multipliers method to study the free vibration characteristics of rectangular moderately thick composite plates reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Plate is resting on point supports. Distribution of CNTs across the plate thickness is considered to be either uniform or functionally graded. Properties of the plate are obtained using a refined rule of mixtures approach which includes the efficiency parameters to capture the size dependent characteristics of the composite plate. Using a Ritz solution method, an eigenvalue problem is established which results in natural frequencies and mode shapes of the plate. Based on the developed solution method, number and position of point supports are arbitrary and also various boundary conditions may be assumed for the four edges of the plate. After performing comparison studies for isotropic homogeneous plates on point supports, parametric studies are provided to explore the vibration characteristics of the carbon nanotube reinforced composite plates on point supports. It is shown that, frequencies of the plate increase as the volume fraction of CNTs increases.