An Alternative Electro-Mechanical Finite Formulation for Functionally Graded Graphene-Reinforced Composite Beams with Macro-Fiber Composite Actuator.

With its extraordinary physical properties, graphene is regarded as one of the most attractive reinforcements to enhance the mechanical characteristics of composite materials. However, the existing models in the literature might meet severe challenges in the interlaminar-stress prediction of thick, functionally graded, graphene-reinforced-composite (FG-GRC)-laminated beams that have been integrated with piezoelectric macro-fiber-composite (MFC) actuators under electro-mechanical loadings. If the transverse shear deformations cannot be accurately described, then the mechanical performance of the FG-GRC-laminated beams with MFC actuators will be significantly impacted by the electro-mechanical coupling effect and the sudden change of the material characteristics at the interfaces. Therefore, a new electro-mechanical coupled-beam model with only four independent displacement variables is proposed in this paper. Employing the Hu-Washizu (HW) variational principle, the precision of the transverse shear stresses in regard to the electro-mechanical coupling effect can be improved. Moreover, the second-order derivatives of the in-plane displacement parameters have been removed from the transverse-shear-stress components, which can greatly simplify the finite-element implementation. Thus, based on the proposed electro-mechanical coupled model, a simple C