Nonlinear electro-dynamic analysis of micro-actuators: Effect of material nonlinearity

This paper presents a nonlinear dynamic analysis of a micro-actuator made of nonlinear elasticity materials. The theoretical formulations are based on Bernoulli–Euler beam theory and include the effects of mid-plane stretching due to large deformation and material nonlinearity. By employing Linstedt–Poincaré perturbation method, the nonlinear governing equation is transformed into a set of linear differential equations which are then solved using Galerkin’s method. Numerical results show that the linear constitutive relationship used in previous studies is valid for small deformation only whereas for large deformation, the nonlinear elasticity constitutive relationship must be used for accurate analysis. The effects of initial gap and beam length on the nonlinear electro-dynamic behavior of the micro-actuator are also discussed.     

Numerical investigation into nonlinear dynamic behavior of electrically-actuated clamped–clamped micro-beam with squeeze-film damping effect

A numerical investigation is performed into the nonlinear dynamic behavior of a clamped–clamped micro-beam actuated by a combined DC/AC voltage and subject to a squeeze-film damping effect. An analytical model based on a nonlinear deflection equation and a linearized Reynolds equation is proposed to describe the deflection of the micro-beam under the effects of the electrostatic actuating force. The deflection of the micro-beam is investigated under various actuating conditions by solving the analytical model using a hybrid numerical scheme comprising the differential transformation method and the finite difference approximation method. It is shown that the numerical results for the dynamic pull-in voltage of the clamped–clamped micro-beam deviate by no more than 2.04% from those presented in the literature based on the conventional finite difference scheme. The effects of the AC voltage amplitude, excitation frequency, residual stress, and ambient pressure on the center-point displacement of the micro-beam are systematically explored. Moreover, the actuation conditions which ensure the stability of the micro-beam are identified by means of phase portraits. Overall, the results presented in this study confirm that the hybrid numerical method provides an accurate means of analyzing the complex nonlinear behavior of common electrostatically-actuated microstructures.     

Pull-in instability and free vibration of electrically actuated poly-SiGe graded micro-beams with a curved ground electrode

This paper investigates the pull-in instability and free vibration of functionally graded poly-SiGe micro-beams under combined electrostatic force, intermolecular force and axial residual stress, with an emphasis on the effects of ground electrode shape, position-dependent material composition, and geometrically nonlinear deformation of the micro-beam. The differential quadrature (DQ) method is employed to solve the nonlinear differential governing equations to obtain the pull-in voltage and vibration frequencies of the clamped poly-SiGe micro-beams. The present analysis is validated through direct comparisons with published experimental results and excellent agreement has been achieved. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of material composition, ground electrode shape, axial residual stress and geometrical nonlinearity on the pull-in voltage and frequency characteristics.     

Linear and nonlinear vibrations of fractional viscoelastic Timoshenko nanobeams considering surface energy effects

In this paper, the linear and nonlinear vibrations of fractional viscoelastic Timoshenko nanobeams are studied based on the Gurtin–Murdoch surface stress theory. Firstly, the constitutive equations of fractional viscoelasticity theory are considered, and based on the Gurtin–Murdoch model, stress components on the surface of the nanobeam are incorporated into the axial stress tensor. Afterward, using Hamilton's principle, equations governing the two-dimensional vibrations of fractional viscoelastic nanobeams are derived. Finally, two solution procedures are utilized to describe the time responses of nanobeams. In the first method, which is fully numerical, the generalized differential quadrature and finite difference methods are used to discretize the linear part of the governing equations in spatial and time domains. In the second method, which is semi-analytical, the Galerkin approach is first used to discretize nonlinear partial differential governing equations in the spatial domain, and the obtained set of fractional-order ordinary differential equations are then solved by the predictor–corrector method. The accuracy of the results for the linear and nonlinear vibrations of fractional viscoelastic nanobeams with different boundary conditions is shown. Also, by comparing obtained results for different values of some parameters such as viscoelasticity coefficient, order of fractional derivative and parameters of surface stress model, their effects on the frequency and damping of vibrations of the fractional viscoelastic nanobeams are investigated.     

Geometrically nonlinear analysis of Timoshenko piezoelectric nanobeams with flexoelectricity effect based on Eringen's differential model

This study analyzes the nonlinear free vibration and post-buckling of nanobeams with flexoelectric effect based on Eringen's differential model. The nanobeam is modeled based on Timoshenko beam's theory. The von-Kármán strain–displacement relation together with the electrical Gibbs free energy and Hamilton's principle are employed to derive equations of motion. The nonlinear free vibration frequencies are obtained for pinned–pinned (P–P) and clamped–clamped (C–C) boundary conditions. Multiple scales method is employed to obtain the closed-form solution for the nonlinear governing equations. By employing this methodology, the natural frequencies of nanobeams are obtained and their post-buckling behavior is examined. The influence of nonlocal parameter, amplitude ratio, and input voltage on the top surface and flexoelectricity constant on nonlinear free vibration and post-buckling characteristics of nanobeam is investigated. In this paper, it is concluded that the flexoelectricity has a significant effect on free vibration of the beams in nano-scale and its effect has to be considered in designing nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) such as nano- generators and nano-sensors.     

Static and dynamic stability modeling of a capacitive FGM micro-beam in presence of temperature changes

Stability of a functionally graded (FG) micro-beam, based on modified couple stress theory (MCST), subjected to nonlinear electrostatic pressure and thermal changes regarding convection and radiation, is the main purpose of this paper. It is assumed that the functionally graded beam, made of metal and ceramic, follows the volume fraction definition and law of mixtures, and its properties change as an exponential function through its thickness. By changing the ceramic constituent percent of the bottom surface, five different types of the micro-beams are investigated. The static pull-in voltages in presence of temperature changes are obtained by using step-by-step linearization method (SSLM) and, by adapting Runge–Kutta approach, the dynamic pull-in voltages are obtained numerically. Though the temperature distribution through the thickness of FG micro-beam (due to its too small measurement) is considered uniform, owing to the different thermal expansions of layers, temperature changes cause deflection in the micro-beam, and consequently affect pull-in values. Hence the profound effects of different material constituent over the pull-in voltages are illustrated and it is graphically displayed that how in some cases neglecting components of the couple stress leads to inaccurate results.     

Analytical solution in 2D domain for nonlinear response of piezoelectric slabs under weak electric fields

Piezoceramic materials exhibit different types of nonlinearities depending upon the magnitude of the mechanical and electric field strength in the continuum. Some of the nonlinearities observed under weak electric fields are: presence of superharmonics in the response spectra and jump phenomena etc. especially if the system is excited near resonance. In this paper, an analytical solution (in 2D plane stress domain) for the nonlinear response of a rectangular piezoceramic slab has been obtained by use of Rayleigh–Ritz method and perturbation technique. The eigenfunction obtained from solution of the differential equation of the linear problem has been used as the shape function in the Rayleigh–Ritz method. Forced vibration experiments have been conducted on a rectangular piezoceramic slab by applying varying electric field strengths across the thickness and the results have been compared with those of analytical solution. The analytical solutions compare well with those of experimental results. These solutions should serve as a method to validate the FE formulations as well as help in the determination of nonlinear material property coefficients for these materials.     

Thermal effects on buckling of shear deformable nanocolumns with von Kármán nonlinearity based on nonlocal stress theory

Thermal buckling of nanocolumns considering nonlocal effect and shear deformation is investigated based on the nonlocal elasticity theory and the Timoshenko beam theory. By expressing the nonlocal stress as nonlinear strain gradients and based on the variational principle and von Kármán nonlinearity, new higher-order differential governing equations with corresponding higher-order nonlocal boundary conditions both in transverse and axial directions for instability of nanocolumns are derived. New analytical solutions for some practical examples on instability of nanocolumns are presented and analyzed in detail. The paper concluded that the critical buckling load is significantly increased in the presence of nonlocal stress and the results confirm that nanocolumn stiffness is enhanced by nanoscale size effect and reduced by shear deformation. The critical temperature change is increased with larger diameter to length ratio and higher nonlocal nanoscale. It is also concluded that at low and room temperatures the buckling load of nanocolumns increases with increasing temperature change, while at high temperature the buckling load decreases with increasing temperature change.     

An approximate solution of the MHD Falkner–Skan flow by Hermite functions pseudospectral method

Based on a new approximation method, namely pseudospectral method, a solution for the three order nonlinear ordinary differential laminar boundary layer Falkner–Skan equation has been obtained on the semi-infinite domain. The proposed approach is equipped by the orthogonal Hermite functions that have perfect properties to achieve this goal. This method solves the problem on the semi-infinite domain without truncating it to a finite domain and transforming domain of the problem to a finite domain. In addition, this method reduces solution of the problem to solution of a system of algebraic equations. We also present the comparison of this work with numerical results and show that the present method is applicable.     

Semi-exact solution for thermo-mechanical analysis of functionally graded elastic-strain hardening rotating disks

In this paper, distributions of stress and strain components of rotating disks with non-uniform thickness and material properties subjected to thermo-elasto-plastic loading are obtained by semi-exact method of Liao’s homotopy analysis method (HAM) and finite element method (FEM). The materials are assumed to be elastic-linear strain hardening and isotropic. The analysis of rotating disk is based on Von Mises’ yield criterion. A two dimensional plane stress analysis is used. The distribution of temperature is assumed to have power forms with the hotter point located at the outer surface of the disk. A mathematical technique of transformation has been proposed to solve the homotopy equations which are originally hard to be handled. The domain of the solution has been substituted by a new domain through which the unknown variable has been taken out from the argument of the function. This makes the solution much easier. A numerical solution of the governing differential equations is also presented based on the Runge–Kutta’s method. The results of three methods are presented and compared which shows good agreements. This verifies the implementation of the HAM and demonstrates its applicability to provide accurate solution for a very complicated case of strongly high nonlinear differential equations with no exact solution. It is important to notice that compared with other methods, HAM needs significant more computation time and computer hardware requirements which limit its application for those problems that other methods can easily handle them.     

Nonlinear secondary resonance of nanobeams under subharmonic and superharmonic excitations including surface free energy effects

The main objective of this study is to predict both the subharmonic and superharmonic resonances of the nonlinear oscillation of nanobeams in the presence of surface free energy effects. To this purpose, Gurtin–Murdoch elasticity theory is adopted to the classical beam theory in order to consider the surface Lame constants, surface mass density, and residual surface stress within the differential equations of motion. The Galerkin method together with the method of multiple scales is utilized to investigate the size-dependent response of nanobeams under hard excitations corresponding to various boundary conditions. A parametric analysis is carried out to indicate the influence of the surface elastic parameters on the frequency-response as well as amplitude-response of the nonlinear secondary resonance including multiple vibration modes and interactions between them. It is seen that for the superharmonic excitation, except for the clamped–free boundary condition, the jump phenomenon is along the hardening direction, while in the clamped–free end supports, it is along the softening direction. Moreover, it is revealed that for the subharmonic excitation, within a specific range of the excitation amplitude, the nanobeam is excited, and this range shifts to lower external force by incorporating the surface free energy effects. It is found that in the case of superharmonic excitation, the value of the excitation frequency associated with the bifurcation point at the peak of the frequency-response curve increases by taking the surface free energy effect into consideration.     

Size-dependent forced vibration of non-uniform bi-directional functionally graded beams embedded in variable elastic environment carrying a moving harmonic mass

In this study, general non-uniform material-varying micro-beam models under a moving harmonic load/mass are investigated. Material variation is modeled by combining axial and thickness material grading models using exponential, linear, parabolic and sigmoidal functions. Beam is assumed to be resting on an elastic foundation and in this linear foundation model, foundation modulus is assumed to vary axially with respect to space variable in a non-linear manner ignoring the effect of mass density of foundation on the behavior of micro-beam. Cross-section variation through the length is formulated for both thickness and width variation. Governing equations for such comprehensive beam model is achieved using Hamilton's principle in conjunction with modified couple stress theory to add the scale-effects and solved by discussing explicit and implicit finite element methods with using various-steps and Wilson-theta method. Current methodology is verified using previous studies on simplified problems. A comprehensive parametric study is presented in order to indicate the influence of each design, material and fundamental terms on the forced vibration behavior of such structures under a moving harmonic/constant load/mass. It is shown that by appropriately choosing the material variation in bidirectional functionally graded beams dynamic vibration behavior of such structures could change significantly. Moreover, it is shown that varying cross-section, elastic foundation and type of harmonic moving mass can change the dynamic reaction of the general micro-beam model. From the influence of modified couple stress term on mechanical behavior of such structures it is concluded that this term has crucial effect in varying the dynamic deflections and it is important to acknowledge it in analyzing such structures.     

A variational approach for large deflection of ends supported nanorod under a uniformly distributed load,using intrinsic coordinate finite elements

This paper presents a variational formulation that can be used for large deflection analysis of ends supported nanorod including the coupled effects of nonlocal elasticity and surface stress under a uniformly distributed load. The variational formulation involving the strain energy due to bending of nonlocal elasticity including the surface stress effect and virtual work done by a uniformly distributed load, is expressed in terms of the intrinsic coordinates. The Lagrange multiplier technique is applied to impose the boundary conditions which accomplished in the formulation. The validity of the variational approach is ensured by Euler's equation, which identical to the one derived by the force equilibrium consideration of an infinitesimal nanorod segment. The finite element method and Newton–Raphson iterative procedure based on the variational formulation are used to solve a system of nonlinear equations. Moreover, the very large deflection configurations of ends supported nanorod are highlighted in this study.     

Study of parametric oscillation of an electrostatically actuated microbeam using variational iteration method

This paper deals with the study of parametric oscillation of an electrostatically actuated microbeam using variational iteration method. The paper considers a micro-beam suspended between two conductive micro-plates, subjected to a same actuation voltage. The nonlinear governing differential equation of motion about static equilibrium position using calculus of variation theory and Taylor series expansion has been linearized and implementing a Galerkin based reduced order model a Mathieu type equation has been obtained. By improving variational iteration method combining with method of strained parameters transition curves, separating stable from unstable regions have been obtained. The results of variational iteration method, perturbation and direct numerical integration methods for some cases selected from different regions (stable and unstable regions) have been compared.     

Size-dependent buckling analysis of functionally graded third-order shear deformable microbeams including thermal environment effect

Presented herein is the prediction of buckling behavior of size-dependent microbeams made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) including thermal environment effect. To this purpose, strain gradient elasticity theory is incorporated into the classical third-order shear deformation beam theory to develop a non-classical beam model which contains three additional internal material length scale parameters to consider the effects of size dependencies. The higher-order governing differential equations are derived on the basis of Hamilton’s principle. Afterward, the size-dependent differential equations and related boundary conditions are discretized along with commonly used end supports by employing generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method. A parametric study is carried out to demonstrate the influences of the dimensionless length scale parameter, material property gradient index, temperature change, length-to-thickness aspect ratio and end supports on the buckling characteristics of FGM microbeams. It is revealed that temperature change plays more important role in the buckling behavior of FGM microbeams with higher values of dimensionless length scale parameter.     

An alternative linearization approach applicable to hysteretic systems

In this paper a method is proposed for equivalent linearization of nonlinear restoring forces being governed by differential equations in weakly nonlinear systems. These types of restoring forces cannot be linearized by employing conventional approximate approaches. Two analytical examples are used to show the accuracy of the proposed method. The application of the method to hysteretic systems is examined by constructing equivalent linear representation for Bouc–Wen model in its general formulation. Numerical investigations reveal that the proposed method is efficient in dynamic behavior analysis of weakly nonlinear hysteretic systems.     

Efficient hybrid method for solving special type of nonlinear partial differential equations

In this article, an efficient hybrid method has been developed for solving some special type of nonlinear partial differential equations. Hybrid method is based on tanh–coth method, quasilinearization technique and Haar wavelet method. Nonlinear partial differential equations have been converted into a nonlinear ordinary differential equation by choosing some suitable variable transformations. Quasilinearization technique is used to linearize the nonlinear ordinary differential equation and then the Haar wavelet method is applied to linearized ordinary differential equation. A tanh–coth method has been used to obtain the exact solutions of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. It is easier to handle nonlinear ordinary differential equations in comparison to nonlinear partial differential equations. A distinct feature of the proposed method is their simple applicability in a variety of two‐ and three‐dimensional nonlinear partial differential equations. Numerical examples show better accuracy of the proposed method as compared with the methods described in past. Error analysis and stability of the proposed method have been discussed.     

A semi-analytic approach for the nonlinear dynamic response of circular plates

This paper presents a new semi-analytic perturbation differential quadrature method for geometrically nonlinear vibration analysis of circular plates. The nonlinear governing equations are converted into a linear differential equation system by using Linstedt–Poincaré perturbation method. The solutions of nonlinear dynamic response and the nonlinear free vibration are then sought through the use of differential quadrature approximation in space domain and analytical series expansion in time domain. The present method is validated against analytical results using elliptic function in several examples for both clamped and simply supported circular plates, showing that it has excellent accuracy and convergence. Compared with numerical methods involving iterative time integration, the present method does not suffer from error accumulation and is able to give very accurate results over a long time interval.     

FE-implementation of plane strain gradient elasticity constitutive equations obtained by homogenization

This paper presents a plane strain gradient elasticity model together with a strength criterion based on the maximum hoop stress. It is developed by higher order homogenization based on a cylindrical RVE containing a void and is implemented as mixed–type finite element formulation into the FE–code Abaqus. Numerical simulations are performed in order to study the size effect related to the onset of failure of specimens of porous elastic material. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Approximation of solutions to operator equations in spaces of smooth functions and in spaces of distributions

The Galerkin method, in particular, the Galerkin method with finite elements (called finite element method) is widely used for numerical solution of differential equations. The Galerkin method allows us to obtain approximations of weak solutions only. However, there arises in applications a rich variety of problems where approximations of smooth solutions and solutions in the sense of distributions have to be found. This article is devoted to the employment of the Petrov–Galerkin method for solving such problems. The article contains general results on the Petrov–Galerkin approximations of solutions to linear and nonlinear operator equations. The problem on construction of the subspaces, which ensure the convergence of the approximations, is investigated. We apply the general results to two‐dimensional (2D) and 3D problems of the elasticity, to a parabolic problem, and to a nonlinear problem of the plasticity. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 406–450, 2014