Buckling of woven fibre and graphene platelet reinforced nanocomposite laminates

Abstract

Buckling of a hybrid laminate combining woven glass fibres with graphene platelets in a polymer matrix is the subject of the present study. Multiscale composites provide improved stiffness and light weigh laminates and as such they have become the materials of choice in several applications. The elastic properties of 3-phase materials are determined by using micromechanical relations. In the present study, the elastic constants of the woven fabric are computed first and the second step involves extending the micromechanical computations to determine the properties of the 3-phase woven fabric-graphene reinforced matrix. The objective is to improve the buckling capacity of the woven fabric laminates with high stiffness and light weight graphene reinforcement. Analytical results are given for the buckling load for a simply supported and orthotropic laminate, taking into account the complex pattern of woven fabrics consisting of weft and warp fibres. Numerical results illustrate the effect of the design parameters such as the layer thicknesses, fibre and graphene contents and aspect ratio on the buckling load. In particular, the effectiveness of the graphene reinforcement on improving buckling load is illustrated by means of contour plots.