Thermal bifurcation buckling of piezoelectric carbon nanotube reinforced composite beams

The nonlinear thermal bifurcation buckling behavior of carbon nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) beams with surface-bonded piezoelectric layers is studied in this paper. The governing equations of piezoelectric CNTRC beam are obtained based on the Euler Bernoulli beam theory and von Karman geometric nonlinearity. Two kinds of carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (CNTRC) beams, namely, uniformly distributed (UD) and functionally graded (FG) reinforcements, are considered. The material properties of FG-CNTRC beam are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction. The SWCNTs are assumed aligned, straight and with a uniform layout. Exact solutions are presented to study the thermal buckling behavior of beams made of a symmetric single-walled carbon nanotube reinforced composite with surface-bonded piezoelectric layers. The critical temperature load is obtained for the nonlinear problem. The effects of the applied actuator voltage, temperature, beam geometry, boundary conditions, and volume fractions of carbon nanotubes on the buckling of piezoelectric CNTRC beams are investigated. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.