Bending, free vibration and buckling of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced sandwich plates, using the extended Refined Zigzag Theory

The paper presents an application of the extended Refined Zigzag Theory (eRZT) in conjunction with the Ritz method to the analysis of bending, free vibration and buckling of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced (FG-CNTR) sandwich plates. Two stacking sequences are taken into consideration: sandwich panels with a homogeneous core and functionally graded face-sheets and sandwich panels with homogeneous face-sheets and a functionally graded core.