Vibration of thermally postbuckled FG-GRC laminated plates resting on elastic foundations

This paper investigates the small- and large-amplitude vibrations of thermally postbuckled graphene-reinforced composite (GRC) laminated plates resting on elastic foundations. The piecewise GRC layers are arranged in a functionally graded (FG) pattern along the thickness direction of the plate. The anisotropic and temperature-dependent material properties of the FG-GRC layers are estimated through the extended Halpin-Tsai micromechanical model. Based on the Reddy's higher order shear deformation plate theory and the von Kármán strain-displacement relationships, the motion equations of the plates are derived. The foundation support, the thermal effect, and the initial deflection caused by thermal postbuckling are also included in the derivation. A two-step perturbation approach is applied to determine the thermal postbuckling equilibrium paths as well as the nonlinear vibration solutions for the FG-GRC laminated plates. The numerical illustrations concern small- and large-amplitude vibration characteristics of thermally postbuckled FG-GRC laminated plates under a uniform temperature field. The effects of graphene reinforcement distributions and foundation stiffnesses on the vibration responses of FG-GRC laminated plates are examined in detail.