On nonlinear 3D electro-elastic numerical modeling of two-phase inhomogeneous FG piezocomposites reinforced with GNPs

• 3D elasticity-piezoelectricity has been studied. • Geometrically nonlinearity has been taken into modeling. • Functionally graded compositions have been assumed. • Piezoelectric beams have been reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets. • Differential quadrature numerical technique has been implemented. The novelty here comes from not only the perfect nonlinear three-dimensional (3D) electro-elasticity investigation but also the mixed material itself. The literature widely showed mechanical assessments on the piezoelectric structures; however, a lack of nonlinear three-dimensional elasticity studies has been witnessed on these kinds of smart materials. Therefore, a nonlinear 3D elasticity-piezoelectricity coupling is considered in this study. What is more, this research brings about an era in the field of sensing manufacturing such as sensors and actuators by proposing the construction of these devices in an advanced composite framework. The piezoelectric medium can be electro-mechanically improved with the aggregation of graphene platelets/nanoplatelets (GPLs/GNPs) based on the functionally graded (FG) composition. The assumption for such a smart composite has been made to provide higher flexibility smart tools while their elastic strength can also get further. To accomplish this, the derivation of a rigorous mathematical model has come out for a transversely isotropic inhomogeneous FG-piezoelectric beam-like sensor/actuator using 3D kinematic displacements, geometrically nonlinear strains, Lagrange technique, 3D stress-strains tensors, linear elastic material, and in particular Halpin-Tsai micro-mechanic model. Numerical modeling has been built by the generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) technique. A comprehensive parametric study has also been established for intelligent FG beams.