Finite element analysis on free vibration of polymer composite beams reinforced with graphene platelets

Nanocomposites reinforced with graphene and its derivatives have shown great potential in structural engineering due to their superior mechanical properties obtained from the reinforcing phase while keeping beneficial attributes of the matrix. Previous studies mainly aimed at the fabrication of the nanocomposites and characterization of their material properties. Limited work has been conducted on vibration of these nanocomposite structures. In this paper, finite element analysis on the free vibration of composite beams reinforced with Graphene Platelets (GPLs) is carried out. The effective mechanical properties of the composites are calculated using Halpin-Tsai micromechanics model. Four GPL distribution patterns are considered and parametric study is conducted to investigate the influences of GPL concentration and distribution pattern, number of layers and boundary conditions on vibration characteristics of the composite beams. The results show that adding a small amount of GPLs can significantly increase the natural frequency of the beam. With the same GPL content, the placement of more GPLs near the top and bottom surfaces of the beam is the most effective way to increase the natural frequency of the beam. It is found the natural frequency for distribution patterns 2 and 4 increases with the increase of the number of layers while patterns 3 is not sensitive to the number