Geometrically nonlinear bending of functionally graded nanocomposite trapezoidal plates reinforced with graphene platelets (GPLs)

This paper investigates the nonlinear bending behaviours of functionally graded trapezoidal nanocomposite plates reinforced with graphene platelets (GPLs) under thermo-mechanical loading by employing finite element method. The modified Halpin–Tsai model and rule of mixtures are adopted to determine the Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio and the thermal expansion coefficient of the nanocomposites. The influences of a number of factors, including the distribution pattern, concentration and size of GPLs, plate geometry and temperature, on the nonlinear bending of the nanocomposite plates are comprehensively investigated. Numerical results demonstrate that dispersing a small amount of GPLs into nanocomposites can significantly enhance the nonlinear bending performance of the trapezoidal plates. The trapezoidal plates with more GPLs dispersing close to the top and bottom surfaces has the minimum bending deflection and are less sensitive to the temperature increases. GPLs with fewer layers and larger surface area are better reinforcing fillers than their counterparts. Moreover, the plates with bigger bottom angles are found to have better bending performances. However, when the bottom angles are greater than 75°, the variation of the bottom angles will have limited effects on the bending behaviours of the trapezoidal plates.