Assessing the static behavior of hybrid CNT-metal-ceramic composite plates

Abstract

Functionally graded materials are commonly particulate composites characterized by a varying spatial distribution of the inclusion particles. Because of this, these materials possess a great suitability potential concerning to material properties, which can be very useful to achieve specified structural behaviors. Significant features of these materials are related to their thermal barrier properties especially when ceramic materials are involved, and to the mitigation of abrupt stresses transitions, typically found in laminates. From the manufacturing point of view as well as from the computational perspective, these materials can be thought as effectively having a continuous variation of their constituent phases and consequently their properties, or by resulting from the stacking of a specified number of layers, each having constant properties. This work presents a set of parametric studies aiming to characterize the static response of hybrid functionally graded plates, concerning to their transverse displacement profile and stresses distributions. To this purpose, one considers parameters such as different ceramic materials, plates’ aspect ratio, continuous or discrete variation of phase’s mixture through thickness, the carbon nanotubes (CNT) weight fraction contents and the type of nanotubes. The results obtained are discussed and conclusions are drawn.

Keywords

• functionally graded metal-ceramic composites
• hybrid multiscale particulate composites
• carbon nanotubes
• static structural behavior
• finite element modelling
• parametric studies