Bending analysis of the curved sandwich beam with FG-CNT reinforced faces and flexible core

The present study investigated the bending behavior of a curved sandwich beam with flexible core and carbon nanotube reinforced face sheets. Carbon nanotubes are considered as functional graded material in the thickness of the face sheets and their properties change along the thickness of the face sheets. In order to model the behavior of the sandwich beam, the Euler-Bernoulli theory was applied for the face sheets and the quasi 3D elasticity was applied for the core, which allowed us to investigate the flexibility of the core. In this regard also, the compatibility condition between the face sheets and the core is used. The governing differential equations were extracted by using the principle of virtual displacement. In order to verify the accuracy of the formulation and present method, the results were compared with the existing results in this domain and was verified the validity of the extracted and solved equations. Therefore, the effect of different patterns of carbon nanotubes distribution have been investigated and compared on the radial deflection, the tangent displacement, the axial force, and the bending moment in the faces and the radial and shear stresses in the core. Also, the effect of the volume fraction of the carbon nanotubes, the ratio of the core thickness to the faces, and the beam curvature radius and angle have been investigated on results.