LAUSR

Abstract This paper presents an analytical study that predicts the low-velocity impact response of a spinning functionally graded (FG) graphene reinforced cylindrical shell subjected to impact, external axial and thermal loads. The nanocomposite cylindrical shell is constructed based on a multiplayer model with graphene platelet (GPL) nanofillers whose weight fraction is constant in each concentric cylindrical layer but follows a layer-wise variation in the thickness direction, resulting in the position-dependent elastic moduli, mass density, Poisson's ratio and thermal expansion coefficient through the shell thickness. With effects of the thermal expansion deformation, external axial loads, centrifugal and Coriolis forces as well as the spin-induced initial hoop tension taken into account, the natural frequency of the cylindrical shell is derived on the base of differential equations of motion which are established according to the Donnell's nonlinear shell theory and the Hamilton's principle. The time-dependent contact force between a foreign impactor and the cylindrical shell is calculated by adopting a single spring-mass model. In addition, on the base of the other second-order differential equation, time-dependent displacements and strains are obtained by using the Duhamel integration. In numerical analyses, validation examples are carried out to verify the present solution, and then comprehensive parametric investigations are given to study effects of the GPL weight fraction, dispersion patterns, spinning speeds, temperature variations, geometrical sizes of the shell, the external axial load, radius of the impactor and the impact velocity on the contact force, contact duration and time histories of displacements and strains of the nanocomposite cylindrical shell.