Elastic analysis of polymeric cylinders reinforced with carbon nanotubes

In this work, stress analysis of a polymeric cylinder’s cylindrical shell reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is investigated. The cylinder is subjected to mechanical and thermal loadings. All the equivalent mechanical and thermal properties of nano-composite cylinder are obtained using Mori-Tanaka model. Based on equilibrium, the governing equation is derived. Using an exact solution, the stresses and radial displacement distributions in the structure are calculated. The effects of CNTs volume percent on the stresses and radial displacement for internal and external pressure cylinder are the main discussion of this study. Numerical results indicate that with increasing CNTs volume percent, the stresses decrease. However, this shows the important effect of nanotechnology in stress reduction of cylinder which may be useful in sensors and actuators.