Nonlinear bending of an agglomerated CNT-reinforced composite sandwich beam and frame structure

Abstract The nonlinear bending of the sandwich beam and frame structure made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) reinforced composite is investigated considering the agglomeration of CNTs. The structure is composed of a polymer core and face sheets of composite. A corotational element is derived and employed to construct the nonlinear governing equation. An Iterative method is adopted with arc-length technique to compute the structure’s response. The results indicate that of the agglomeration of CNTs is important for the nonlinear response of the structure, and the response is more prominent when the degree of agglomeration is more severe. The impacts of the CNT reinforcement on the nonlinear behavior are investigated in detail. The effects of the ratio of core thickness to face thickness on the nonlinear response of the structure is also explored and highlighted.