Large amplitude flutter analysis of functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite plates with piezoelectric layers on nonlinear elastic foundation

This paper presents a study of geometrical nonlinear flutter of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite plates embedded with piezoelectric layers subjected to supersonic flow on nonlinear elastic foundation. The governing equations of the system are obtained using the classical plate theory and von Karman geometric nonlinearity. The linear piston theory is utilized to evaluate the aerodynamic pressure. Galerkin method is used to reduce the governing equations to an ordinary differential equation with respect to time in the form of Duffing equation. The homotopy perturbation method is employed to study the effect of large amplitude on the nondimensional flutter pressure. It is assumed that carbon nano-tubes are distributed along thickness in two different manners namely uniform distribution and functionally graded. The effects of volume fraction of carbon nanotubes, large amplitude, different distribution types, piezoelectric layers, and applied voltage on flutter pressure are studied.