Free vibration of smart functionally graded laminated plates with graphene reinforcements

With the special physical characteristics, graphene is considered as an excellent candidate for various engineering applications. Due to the electromechanical coupling properties and significant variations in material characteristics at the interfaces of adjacent layers, existing higher-order models reported in the literature may lack the necessary capability to achieve precise prediction of natural frequencies for piezoelectric graphene-reinforced composite plates. This paper will develop advanced plate theory for the vibration analysis of graphene-reinforced composite plates with a macro fiber composite piezoelectric layer. The number of displacement variables in the developed theory is independent of the layer number. In contrast to earlier higher-order theories, the proposed plate theory incorporates a modified interlaminar shear stress field that accounts for the electromechanical properties. Furthermore, the modified transverse shear stress field can be adsorbed in the equations of motion by means of Hamilton's principle, which can effectively improve the ability to predict natural frequencies of piezoelectric laminated plates. Using the exact solutions and the results obtained from other theories, the performance of the developed theory is evaluated. Compared with the existing higher-order models, the proposed theory is more accurate in predicting natural frequencies. Additionally, a parametric study is conducted for the influences of several significant parameters of graphene and the piezoelectric plate on the vibration responses of the smart composite plates with graphene reinforcements.