A strategy resisting wrinkling of sandwich structures reinforced using functionally-graded carbon nanotubes

Sandwich structures have been widely applied in the wing and the horizontal tail of the aircraft, so face sheets of such structure might occur wrinkling deformation in the process of service, which will largely decrease capability of sustaining loads. As a result, this paper aims at proposing a reasonable strategy resisting wrinkling deformation of sandwich structures. To this end, an enhanced higher-order model has been proposed for wrinkling analysis of sandwich structures. Buckling behaviors of a five-layer sandwich plate are firstly analyzed, which is utilized to assess performance of the proposed model. Subsequently, wrinkling behaviors of four sandwich plates are further investigated by utilizing present model, which have been evaluated by using quasi three-dimensional (3D) elasticity solutions, 3D Finite Element Method (3D-FEM) results and experimental datum. Finally, the present model is utilized to study the buckling and the wrinkling behaviors of sandwich plates reinforced by Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs). In addition, influence of distribution profile of CNTs on wrinkling behaviors has been analyzed, and a typical distribution profile of CNTs has been chosen to resist wrinkling deformation. Without increase of additional weight, the present strategy can effectively resist wrinkling deformation of sandwich plates, which is rarely reported in published literature.