Effect of plate skew angle and crack parameters on buckling of cracked CNT-reinforced composite skew plates

ABSTRACT The present study is the first to investigate the effect of plate skew angle and crack parameters on the buckling of cracked CNT-reinforced composite skew plates. A MATLAB code, developed within the extended finite element method (XFEM), analyzes the buckling stability of various cracked CNT-reinforced composite skew plate models under different in-plane loading and boundary conditions. The analysis considers varying plate skew angles, crack lengths, and crack locations. The effect of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) volume fraction and dispersion, modeled using the Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka homogenization scheme, on critical buckling is also examined. Results indicate that the buckling capacity of cracked CNT-reinforced composite skew plates is significantly affected by not only the skew angle and boundary conditions of the plate but also by the length and location of the crack. Moreover, the agglomeration of CNTs reduces the effective stiffness and buckling capacity.