Finite element model for carbon nanotube-reinforced and graphene nanoplatelet-reinforced composite beams.

• Structural behaviours of CNTRC and GPLRC beams are studied. • Normal and shear effects are included in the governing equations of motion. • Distribution pattern, volume fraction of CNTs, GPL weight fraction, etc. are investigated. • A finite element model is developed to analyze beams for various boundary conditions. This paper investigates bending, vibration and buckling analysis of carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (CNTRC) and graphene nanoplatelet-reinforced composite (GPLRC) beams. Both normal and shear effects are included in the formulation of the governing equations of motion of the beams. Finite element model is employed to determine displacements, critical buckling loads and natural frequencies of the beams with different boundary conditions. Several important factors in parametric studies including distribution pattern, volume fraction of CNTs, GPL weight fraction, slenderness ratio, boundary condition, etc. are investigated. Some new results are given as benchmark for further validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]