Aeroelastic characteristics of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite plates under a supersonic flow

Aeroelastic characteristics of nanocomposite plates reinforced by carbon nanotubes and subjected to supersonic flow are investigated. Here, carbon nanotube-reinforced composite plates with five different distributions of carbon nanotube are considered. The material properties are supposed to vary gradually through the thickness of the plate and the rule of mixture is applied to estimate the effective material properties of nanocomposite plate. The governing equations of nanocomposite plate are derived based on Kirchhoff's plate theory and supersonic aerodynamic pressure is approximated by the first-order piston theory. Galerkin's method is utilized to obtain the solutions of the coupled governing equations, simultaneously. The suggested model is justified by a good agreement between the results given by present model and available data in the literature. To illustrate the effects of volume fraction, aspect ratio and non-dimensional in-plane forces on the aeroelastic stability of nanocomposite plates, parametric studies have been carried out. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.