Characterization of the vibration, stability and static responses of graphene-reinforced sandwich plates under mechanical and thermal loadings using the refined shear deformation plate theory

An analytical investigation was carried out to assess the free vibration, buckling and deformation responses of simply-supported sandwich plates. The plates constructed with graphene-reinforced polymer composite (GRPC) face sheets and are subjected to mechanical and thermal loadings while being simply-supported or resting on different types of elastic foundation. The temperature-dependent material properties of the face sheets are estimated by employing the modified Halpin-Tsai micromechanical model. The governing differential equations of the system are established based on the refined shear deformation plate theory and solved analytically using the Navier method. The validation of the formulation is carried out through comparisons of the calculated natural frequencies, thermal buckling capacities and maximum deflections of the sandwich plates with those evaluated by the available solutions in the literature. Numerical case studies are considered to examine the influences of the core to face sheet thickness ratio, temperature variation, Winkler- and Pasternak-types foundation, as well as the volume fraction of graphene on the response of the plates. It will be explicitly demonstrated that the vibration, stability and deflection responses of the sandwich plates become significantly affected by the aforementioned parameters.