Buckling analysis of GPL-reinforced FGM microplates using Pb-2 Ritz functions

Abstract

In this article, a buckling analysis of rectangular microplates under various boundary conditions is studied. The microplate is made of functionally graded material (FGM) reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs). The FGM matrix is assumed to vary with the power-law distribution, while the GPLs are evenly distributed along the thickness. The modified Halpin-Tsai model and the rule of mixture are used to estimate the material properties of the GPL-reinforced FGM. The governing equation for the buckling problem of the microplate is developed using the modified couple stress theory (MCST), four-variable refined plate theory (RPT-4), and the pb-2 Ritz method. The solution is validated with those in existing literature, and the effects of different parameters (material characteristics, boundary conditions, size dependency, and geometric dimensions) on the critical buckling load of the microplate are given.