Thermo-mechanical bending analysis of a sandwich cylindrical panel with an auxetic honeycomb core and GNP-reinforced face sheets

In the present research, the static bending analysis of a three-layer sandwich cylindrical panel with a re-entrant auxetic honeycomb core and polymeric face sheets reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) resting on an elastic foundation in a thermal environment is investigated. The mechanical properties of the nanocomposite GNP-reinforced face sheets are calculated using the Halpin–Tsai model along with the rule of mixture. The heat conduction equation is solved in the thickness direction to provide the exact profile of the temperature distribution. The panel is modeled based on the third-order shear deformation (TSDT), the elastic foundation is modeled according to the Pasternak foundation model, and the governing equations and boundary conditions are derived via the minimum potential energy principle. The differential quadrature method (DQM) is employed to solve the governing equations under various boundary conditions in longitudinal and circumferential directions. The convergence and accuracy of the modeling are confirmed and influences of different parameters on the deflection and stress distribution are studied including the inclined angle of the re-entrant cells, thermal environment, mass fraction and distribution patterns of the GNPs, the thickness of core-to-thickness of panel ratio, and the boundary conditions.