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The outstanding physical properties, together with the nanoscale effects and interface chemistry, make graphene and its derivatives promising nanofillers to improve the mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of polymeric materials. This paper is concerned with the static analysis of functionally graded multilayer graphene nanocomposite beams that are integrated with two surface-bounded piezoelectric layers and subjected to the combine action of a uniform temperature rise, a constant actuator voltage and a transverse load. The multilayer beam is composed of perfectly bonded graphene nanoplatelet-reinforced composite (GPLRC) layers in which graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs) are randomly oriented and uniformly dispersed in each layer with the weight fraction varying layerwise across the beam thickness. The modified Halpin-Tsai micromechanics model is used to estimate the effective Young’s modulus of GPLRC layers. Within the framework of the first-order shear deformation theory, the governing equations are derived by applying the principle of virtual displacements and then solved by using the differential quadrature method. A comprehensive parametric study is conducted to examine the effects of distribution pattern, concentration, and geometry of GPL, applied voltage, as well as temperature change on the static bending of functionally graded multilayer GPLRC beams. Numerical results show that the bending deflection can be suppressed by applying a negative voltage and distributing more GPLs near the surface layers. In addition, the GPL weight fraction and width-to-thickness, and temperature change also have great influences on the thermo-electro-mechanical bending behaviour.

Static bending; Graphene nanocomposite; Functionally graded beam; First-order shear deformation theory; Differential quadrature method