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In the present work, an analytical study on the asymmetric static and dynamic buckling of a pinned-fixed functionally graded graphene nanoplatelet reinforced composite (FG-GPLRC) arch under thermal conditions is presented. The reinforcement of graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs) is dispersed along arch thickness by following a power law distribution. Making use of the modified Halpin–Tsai micromechanical model and energy method, the static buckling load of the arch under an arbitrary radial point load and the dynamic buckling load of the arch under an arbitrary radial step point load can be derived, which could be applied to determine the existence of dynamic buckling and the phenomenon of multiple limit points under a static state. A numerical analysis is conducted to verify the accuracy of the analytical method, a good prediction on the static and dynamic buckling of the pinned-fixed FG-GPLRC arch is demonstrated. In this study, the influence of GPLs weight fraction, concentration and geometry on the static and dynamic buckling of the arch is comprehensively discussed. The dynamic and static buckling loads of the arch are found to be sensitive to applied load position under various elevated temperatures. Arch buckling load decreases as the power law index increases, but it increases as temperature rises. It is also found that the present approach is able to trace the postbuckling paths of the arch for stability analysis. Besides, accurate first-known thermal buckling solutions are also presented.

Owing to their superior mechanical properties, e.g. exceptionally high Young’s modulus, high strength, large specific surface area, and good thermal conductivity, graphene and its derivatives such as graphene platelets (GPLs) are excellent reinforcing nanofillers for composite materials. The most recently developed functionally graded graphene platelets reinforced composite (FG-GPLRC) where GPLs are non-uniformly dispersed with more GPLs in the area where they are most needed to achieve significantly improved mechanical performance has opened up a new avenue for the development of next generation structural forms with an excellent combination of high stiffness, light weight and multi-functionality. Research activities in this emerging area have been rapidly increasing since it was first proposed in 2017. The present paper (i) briefly reviews the mechanical properties of graphene and graphene composites; (ii) summarizes the characteristics of functionally graded materials (FGM) and reports the fabrication of FG-GPLRC; (iii) discusses the existing micromechanics models for the prediction of effective mechanical properties of GPLRC; (iv) presents a comprehensive review on the mechanical analyses of FG-GPLRC structures; and (v) discuss the key technical challenges and future research directions.