SURFACE STRESS EFFECT IN MECHANICS OF NANOSTRUCTURED MATERIALS

This review article summarizes the advances in the surface stress effect in mechanics of nanostructured elements,including nanoparticles,nanowires,nanobeams,and nanofilms,and heterogeneous materials containing nanoscale inhomogeneities.It begins with the fundamental formulations of surface mechanics of solids,including the definition of surface stress as a surface excess quantity,the surface constitutive relations,and the surface equilibrium equations.Then,it depicts some theoretical and experimental studies of the mechanical properties of nanostructured elements,as well as the static and dynamic behaviour of cantilever sensors caused by the surface stress which is influenced by adsorption.Afterwards,the article gives a summary of the analytical elasto-static and dynamic solutions of a single as well as multiple inhomogeneities embedded in a matrix with the interface stress prevailing.The effect of surface elasticity on the diffraction of elastic waves is elucidated.Due to the difficulties in the analytical solution of inhomogeneities of complex shapes and configurations,finite element approaches have been developed for heterogeneous materials with the surface stress.Surface stress and surface energy are inherently related to crack propagation and the stress field in the vicinity of crack tips.The solutions of crack problems taking into account surface stress effects are also included.Predicting the effective elastic and plastic responses of heterogeneous materials while taking into account surface and interface stresses has received much attention.The advances in this topic are inevitably delineated.Mechanics of rough surfaces appears to deserve special attention due to its theoretical and practical implications.Some most recent work is reviewed.Finally,some challenges are pointed out.They include the characterization of surfaces and interfaces of real nanomaterials,experimental measurements and verification of mechanical parameters of complex surfaces,and the effects of the physical and chemical processes on the surface properties,etc.     

Dynamic behaviour of axially moving nanobeams based on nonlocal elasticity approach

In this article, transverse free vibrations of axially moving nanobeams subjected to axial tension are studied based on nonlocal stress elasticity theory. A new higher-order differential equation of motion is derived from the variational principle with corresponding higher-order, non-classical boundary conditions. Two supporting conditions are investigated, i.e. simple supports and clamped supports. Effects of nonlocal nanoscale, dimensionless axial velocity, density and axial tension on natural frequencies are presented and discussed through numerical examples. It is found that these factors have great influence on the dynamic behaviour of an axially moving nanobeam. In particular, the nonlocal effect tends to induce higher vibration frequencies as compared to the results obtained from classical vibration theory. Analytical solutions for critical velocity of these nanobeams when the frequency vanishes are also derived and the influences of nonlocal nanoscale and axial tension on the critical velocity are discussed.     

Mechanical properties of silicon nanobeams with undercut evaluated by combining dynamic resonance test and finite element analysis

Mechanical properties of silicon nanobeams are of prime importance in nanoelectromechanical system applications. A numerical experimental method of determining resonant frequencies and Young's modulus of nanobeams by combining finite element analysis and frequency response tests based on an electrostatic excitation and visual detection by laser Doppler vibrometer is presented in this paper. Silicon nanobeams test structures are fabricated from silicon-on-insulator wafers by using a standard lithography and anisotropic wet etching release process, which inevitably generates the undercut of the nanobeam clamping. In conjunction with three-dimensional finite element numerical simulations incorporating the geometric undercut, dynamic resonance tests reveal that the undercut significantly reduces resonant frequencies of nanobeams due to the fact that it effectively increases the nanobeam length by a correct value Δ L, which is a key parameter that is correlated with deviations in the resonant frequencies predicted from the ideal Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and experimentally measured data. By using a least-square fit expression including Δ L, we finally extract Young's modulus from the measured resonance frequency versus effective length dependency and find that Young's modulus of silicon nanobeam with 200-nm thickness is close to that of bulk silicon. This result supports that the finite size effect due to surface effect does not play a role in mechanical elastic behaviour of silicon nanobeams with the thickness larger than 200 nm.     

Size-dependent geometrically nonlinear free vibration analysis of fractional viscoelastic nanobeams based on the nonlocal elasticity theory

In recent decades, mathematical modeling and engineering applications of fractional-order calculus have been extensively utilized to provide efficient simulation tools in the field of solid mechanics. In this paper, a nonlinear fractional nonlocal Euler–Bernoulli beam model is established using the concept of fractional derivative and nonlocal elasticity theory to investigate the size-dependent geometrically nonlinear free vibration of fractional viscoelastic nanobeams. The non-classical fractional integro-differential Euler–Bernoulli beam model contains the nonlocal parameter, viscoelasticity coefficient and order of the fractional derivative to interpret the size effect, viscoelastic material and fractional behavior in the nanoscale fractional viscoelastic structures, respectively. In the solution procedure, the Galerkin method is employed to reduce the fractional integro-partial differential governing equation to a fractional ordinary differential equation in the time domain. Afterwards, the predictor–corrector method is used to solve the nonlinear fractional time-dependent equation. Finally, the influences of nonlocal parameter, order of fractional derivative and viscoelasticity coefficient on the nonlinear time response of fractional viscoelastic nanobeams are discussed in detail. Moreover, comparisons are made between the time responses of linear and nonlinear models.     

Mechanical properties of silicon nanobeams with an undercut evaluated by combining the dynamic resonance test and finite element analysis

Mechanical properties of silicon nanobeams are of prime importance in nanoelectromechanical system applications.A numerical experimental method of determining resonant frequencies and Young’s modulus of nanobeams by combining finite element analysis and frequency response tests based on an electrostatic excitation and visual detection by using a laser Doppler vibrometer is presented in this paper.Silicon nanobeam test structures are fabricated from silicon-oninsulator wafers by using a standard lithography and anisotropic wet etching release process,which inevitably generates the undercut of the nanobeam clamping.In conjunction with three-dimensional finite element numerical simulations incorporating the geometric undercut,dynamic resonance tests reveal that the undercut significantly reduces resonant frequencies of nanobeams due to the fact that it effectively increases the nanobeam length by a correct value △L,which is a key parameter that is correlated with deviations in the resonant frequencies predicted from the ideal Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and experimentally measured data.By using a least-square fit expression including △L,we finally extract Young’s modulus from the measured resonance frequency versus effective length dependency and find that Young’s modulus of a silicon nanobeam with 200-nm thickness is close to that of bulk silicon.This result supports that the finite size effect due to the surface effect does not play a role in the mechanical elastic behaviour of silicon nanobeams with thickness larger than 200 nm.     

Mechanical properties an undercut evaluated resonance test and of silicon nanobeams with by combining the dynamic finite element analysis

Mechanical properties of silicon nanobeams are of prime importance in nanoelectromechanical system applications. A numerical experimental method of determining resonant frequencies and Young＇s modulus of nanobeams by combining finite element analysis and frequency response tests based on an electrostatic excitation and visual detection by using a laser Doppler vibrometer is presented in this paper. Silicon nanobeam test structures are fabricated from silicon-oninsulator wafers by using a standard lithography and anisotropic wet etching release process, which inevitably generates the undercut of the nanobeam clamping. In conjunction with three-dimensional finite element numerical simulations incorporating the geometric undercut, dynamic resonance tests reveal that the undercut significantly reduces resonant frequencies of nanobeams due to the fact that it effectively increases the nanobeam length by a correct value △L, which is a key parameter that is correlated with deviations in the resonant frequencies predicted from the ideal Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and experimentally measured data. By using a least-square fit expression including △L, we finally extract Young＇s modulus from the measured resonance frequency versus effective length dependency and find that Young＇s modulus of a silicon nanobeam with 200-nm thickness is close to that of bulk silicon. This result supports that the finite size effect due to the surface effect does not play a role in the mechanical elastic behaviour of silicon nanobeams with thickness larger than 200 nm.     

Size effect of the elastic modulus of rectangular nanobeams:Surface elasticity effect

The size-dependent elastic property of rectangular nanobeams （nanowires or nanoplates） induced by the surface elas- ticity effect is investigated by using a developed modified core-shell model. The effect of surface elasticity on the elastic modulus of nanobeams can be characterized by two surface related parameters, i.e., inhomogeneous degree constant and surface layer thickness. The analytical results show that the elastic modulus of the rectangular nanobeam exhibits a distinct size effect when its characteristic size reduces below 1 O0 nm. It is also found that the theoretical results calculated by a mod- ified core-shell model have more obvious advantages than those by other models （core-shell model and core-surface model） by comparing them with relevant experimental measurements and computational results, especially when the dimensions of nanostructures reduce to a few tens of nanometers.