Nonlinear dynamics of temperature-dependent FG-GRC laminated beams resting on Visco-Pasternak foundations

This paper studies the nonlinear dynamic responses of graphene-reinforced composite (GRC) beams in a thermal environment. It is assumed that a laminated beam rests on a Pasternak foundation with viscosity and consists of GRC layers with various volume fractions of graphene reinforcement to construct a functionally graded (FG) pattern along the transverse direction of the beam. An extended Halpin–Tsai model which is calibrated against the results from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations is used to evaluate the material properties of GRC layers. The mechanical model of the beam is on the establishment of a third-order shear deformation beam theory and includes the von-Kármán nonlinearity effect. The model also considers the foundation support and the temperature variation. The two-step perturbation technique is first applied to solve the beam motion equations and to derive the nonlinear dynamic load–deflection equation of the beam. Then a Runge–Kutta numerical method is applied and the solutions for this nonlinear equation are obtained. The influence of FG patterns, visco-elastic foundation, ambient temperature and applied load on transient response behaviors of simply supported FG-GRC laminated beams is revealed and examined in detail.