Forced Vibration Analysis of Composite Beams Reinforced by Carbon Nanotubes

This paper presents forced vibration analysis of a simply supported beam made of carbon nanotube-reinforced composite material subjected to a harmonic point load at the midpoint of beam. The composite beam is made of a polymeric matrix and reinforced the single-walled carbon nanotubes with their various distributions. In the beam kinematics, the first-order shear deformation beam theory was used. The governing equations of problem were derived by using the Lagrange procedure. In the solution of the problem, the Ritz method was used, and algebraic polynomials were employed with the trivial functions for the Ritz method. In the solution of the forced vibration problem, the Newmark average acceleration method was applied in the time history. In the numerical examples, the effects of carbon nanotube volume fraction, aspect ratio, and dynamic parameters on the forced vibration response of carbon nanotube-reinforced composite beams are investigated. In addition, some comparison studies were performed, with special results of published papers to validate the using formulations.