Development of size-dependent consistent couple stress theory of Timoshenko beams

In this paper, a linear size-dependent Timoshenko beam model based on the consistent couple stress theory is developed to capture the size effects. The extended Hamilton's principle is utilized to obtain the governing differential equations and boundary conditions. The general form of boundary conditions and the concentrated loading are employed to determine the exact static/dynamic solution of the beam. Utilizing this solution for the beam's deformation and rotation, the exact shape functions of the consistent couple stress theory (C-CST) is extracted, which leads to the stiffness and mass matrices of a two-node C-CST finite element beam. Due to the complexity and high computational cost of using the exact solution's shape functions, in addition to the Ritz approximate solution, a two primary variable finite element model of C-CST is proposed, and the corresponding general deformation and rotation fields, shape functions, mass and stiffness matrices are calculated. The C-CST is validated by comparing the prediction of different beam models for a benchmark problem. For the fully and partially clamped cantilever, and free-free beams, the size dependency of the formulations is investigated. The static solutions of the classical and consistent couple stress Timoshenko beam models are compared, and a criterion for selecting the proper model is proposed. For a wide range of material properties, the relation between the beam length and length scale parameter is derived. It is shown that the validity domain of the consistent couple stress Timoshenko model barely depends on the beam's constituent material.