A comparative study on the effect of SMAs and CNTs on the vibration of composite plates exposed to thermal environments

The main purpose of this study is to compare the effects of two advanced materials, namely shape memory alloys (SMAs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the fundamental natural frequencies of rectangular graphite fiber/epoxy (GF/EP) composite plates. The performance of each of these materials is evaluated for different geometric conditions and boundary conditions as well as operating temperatures. Moreover, the glass transition temperature is considered as a limiting factor in the study. The governing equations are derived based on first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and then solved by generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) technique. The effective thickness-to-width ratio and temperature ranges are determined for both SMA wires and CNTs. The results of this study show that in some conditions, the use of CNTs is preferable over SMA wires and vice versa. Moreover, unlike SMA wires, the positive effect of the CNTs is limited to a certain extent. Furthermore, the numerical results indicate that depending on the different parameters, the use of SMAs may have constructive or destructive effects on the structural vibrations. Interestingly, it is shown that in some circumstances, the co-incorporation of SMAs and CNTs leads to a significant enhancement in the natural frequencies of the structure.