Re-examination of nonlinear vibration and nonlinear bending of porous sandwich cylindrical panels reinforced by graphene platelets

Abstract This article re-examines the nonlinear vibration and nonlinear bending responses of porous sandwich cylindrical panels reinforced by graphene platelets resting on elastic foundations in thermal environments. The graphene platelet-reinforced composite (GPLRC) core is assumed to be of multilayers, and each layer may have different porosity coefficient values to achieve a piece-wise functionally graded pattern. By introducing an inhomogeneous model instead of the equivalent isotropic model (EIM), the Young’s moduli along with the shear modulus of the porous GPLRC core are predicted through a generic Halpin–Tsai model in which the porosity is included. The thermomechanical properties of metal face sheets and the porous GPLRC core are assumed to be temperature-dependent. Governing equations of motion for sandwich cylindrical panels with porous GPLRC core are formulated based on Reddy’s third-order shear deformation theory coupled with von Kármán nonlinear strain–displacement relationships. In the modeling, the panel–foundation interaction and the thermal effects are also considered. The analytical solutions for the nonlinear vibration and nonlinear bending problems are obtained by applying a two-step perturbation approach. Numerical studies are performed to compare the results obtained from the present model and the EIM. The results confirm that the EIM is not suitable for linear free vibration analysis of sandwich cylindrical panels with the porous GPLRC core, but the EIM may be valid for the cases of nonlinear vibration and nonlinear bending analyses of the same panel resting on Pasternak elastic foundations. Graphical abstract