Free vibration,buckling and dynamic stability of bi-directional FG microbeam with a variable length scale parameter embedded in elastic medium

In this paper, size dependent free vibration, buckling and dynamic stability of bi-directional functionally graded (BDFG) microbeam embedded in elastic medium are investigated. The material properties vary along both thickness and axial directions. In particular, the material length scale parameter of microbeam is considered as a function of spatial coordinates and varies with the material gradient parameters. The system of differential equations with variable coefficients governing the motion of BDFG microbeam is derived employing Hamilton’s principle, the modified couple stress theory and third-order shear deformation beam theory. The differential quadrature method (DQM) is utilized to solve the static and dynamic problem. Three different models evaluating the material length scale parameter of BDFG microbeam are presented for comparison. Parametric studies are carried out to show the influence of gradient parameters, size effect, stiffness of elastic medium on the free vibration, buckling and dynamic stability characteristic of BDFG microbeam. Results show that the variation of material length scale parameter should be considered in the analysis of BDFG microbeam.     

Nonlinear microbeam model based on strain gradient theory

The nonlinear governing equation of microbeam based on the strain gradient theory is derived by using a combination of the strain gradient theory and the Hamilton’s principle, and the nonlinear static bending deformation, the post-bucking problem and the nonlinear free vibration are analyzed. The nonlinear term in the nonlinear governing equation is associated with the mean axial extension of the microbeam. The static bending deformation of the clamped–clamped microbeam subjected to transverse force, the critical buckling loads and the nonlinear frequencies of the simple supported microbeam with initial lateral displacement are discussed. It is shown that the size effect is significant when the ratio of characteristic thickness to internal material length scale parameters is approximately equal to one or two, but is diminishing with the increase of the ratio. The results also indicate that the nonlinearity has a great effect on the static and dynamic behavior of microbeam. To attain accurate and reliable characterization of the static and dynamic properties of microbeam, therefore, both the micro structure dependent parameters and the nonlinear term have to be incorporated in the design of micro structures in MEMS or NEMS.     

A hybrid solution for analyzing nonlinear dynamics of electrostatically-actuated microcantilevers

This paper introduces a closed-form approximation of dynamic response of microcantilevers. The applied load on the system was linearized by Taylor series expansion and to obtain approximate solutions, model of a pure odd-order nonlinear oscillator, subjected to constant excitation was assumed. Pull-in voltage was investigated to analyze the different parameters of the examined microbeam. In order to obtain a comprehensive dynamic model for MEMS devices, before, during and after switching, the pure odd-order nonlinear model was combined with a distributed parameter system and solved after reaching the pull-in voltage. The obtained results demonstrate correct prediction of the static pull-in voltage and also the dynamic deflection of microbeams. By using the same approach, the sensitivity of the pull-in voltage to various geometrical parameters was also investigated. The obtained results indicate that excessive increase in the air gap causes substantial increase in the pull-in voltage; while increasing thickness of microcantilever has even greater effect. It was also observed that for a given thickness of microcantilever, increasing its length beyond a certain amount has no effect on the pull-in voltage.     

Nonlinear forced vibration of strain gradient microbeams

In this paper, the strain gradient theory, a non-classical continuum theory able to capture the size effect happening in micro-scale structures, is employed in order to investigate the size-dependent nonlinear forced vibration of Euler–Bernoulli microbeams. The nonlinearities are caused by mid-plane stretching and nonlinear external forces such as van-der-Waals force. The nonlinear governing equations of the microbeams are solved analytically utilizing the perturbation techniques. The primary, super-harmonic and sub-harmonic resonances of a microbeam are studied and the size-dependency of the frequency responses is assessed. The results indicate that the nonlinear forced vibration behavior of microbeams is size-dependent and the ratio of the microbeam thickness to the material length scale parameter, an additional material property appearing in the strain gradient theory, plays an important role.     

变截面二维功能梯度微梁的振动和屈曲特性北大核心CSCD

基于修正的偶应力理论和Timoshenko梁理论,应用变分原理建立了变截面二维功能梯度微梁的自由振动和屈曲力学模型.模型中包含金属组分和陶瓷组分的材料内禀特征尺度参数,可以预测微梁力学行为的尺度效应.采用Ritz法给出了任意边界条件下微梁振动频率和临界屈曲载荷的数值解.数值算例表明:微梁厚度减小时,无量纲一阶频率和无量纲临界屈曲载荷增大,尺度效应增强.锥度比对微梁一阶频率的影响与边界条件密切相关,同时,对应厚度和对应宽度锥度比的影响也有明显差异.变截面微尺度梁无量纲一阶频率随着陶瓷和金属的材料内禀特征尺度参数比的增加而增大,且不同边界条件时增大程度不同.厚度方向和轴向功能梯度指数对微梁的一阶频率和屈曲载荷也有显著的影响.     

Size dependent buckling analysis of functionally graded micro beams based on modified couple stress theory

Buckling analysis of functionally graded micro beams based on modified couple stress theory is presented. Three different beam theories, i.e. classical, first and third order shear deformation beam theories, are considered to study the effect of shear deformations. To present a profound insight on the effect of boundary conditions, beams with hinged-hinged, clamped–clamped and clamped–hinged ends are studied. Governing equations and boundary conditions are derived using principle of minimum potential energy. Afterwards, generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method is applied to solve the obtained differential equations. Some numerical results are presented to study the effects of material length scale parameter, beam thickness, Poisson ratio and power index of material distribution on size dependent buckling load. It is observed that buckling loads predicted by modified couple stress theory deviates significantly from classical ones, especially for thin beams. It is shown that size dependency of FG micro beams differs from isotropic homogeneous micro beams as it is a function of power index of material distribution. In addition, the general trend of buckling load with respect to Poisson ratio predicted by the present model differs from classical one.     

A new Bernoulli–Euler beam model incorporating microstructure and surface energy effects

A new Bernoulli–Euler beam model is developed using a modified couple stress theory and a surface elasticity theory. A variational formulation based on the principle of minimum total potential energy is employed, which leads to the simultaneous determination of the equilibrium equation and complete boundary conditions for a Bernoulli–Euler beam. The new model contains a material length scale parameter accounting for the microstructure effect in the bulk of the beam and three surface elasticity constants describing the mechanical behavior of the beam surface layer. The inclusion of these additional material constants enables the new model to capture the microstructure- and surface energy-dependent size effect. In addition, Poisson’s effect is incorporated in the current model, unlike existing beam models. The new beam model includes the models considering only the microstructure dependence or the surface energy effect as special cases. The current model reduces to the classical Bernoulli–Euler beam model when the microstructure dependence, surface energy, and Poisson’s effect are all suppressed. To demonstrate the new model, a cantilever beam problem is solved by directly applying the general formulas derived. Numerical results reveal that the beam deflection predicted by the new model is smaller than that by the classical beam model. Also, it is found that the difference between the deflections predicted by the two models is very significant when the beam thickness is small but is diminishing with the increase of the beam thickness.     

Strain gradient beam model for dynamics of microscale pipes conveying fluid

Based on the strain gradient theory, we present a microstructure-dependent Bernoulli–Euler model to analyze the vibration and stability of microscale pipes conveying fluid. The equation of motion and boundary conditions are derived using Hamilton’s principle. The proposed strain gradient beam model contains three material length scale parameters to capture the size effect. This new model may be reduced to the modified couple stress beam model when two of these three material length scale parameters vanish and may be reduced to the classical beam model in the absence of all the material length scale parameters. From the numerical calculations for micropipes with both ends positively supported, it is found that the natural frequency and the critical flow velocity are size-dependent. The results show that the microscale pipe displays remarkable size effect when its outside diameter becomes comparable to the material length scale parameter, while the size effect is almost diminishing as the diameter is far greater than the material length scale parameter. Moreover, the size effect predicted by the current strain gradient beam model is stronger than that predicted by the modified couple stress beam model, since two other material length scale parameters have been accounted for in the former.     

Nonlinear modeling and analysis of electrically actuated viscoelastic microbeams based on the modified couple stress theory

A nonclassical nonlinear continuum model of electrically actuated viscoelastic microbeams is presented based on the modified couple stress theory to consider the microstructure effect in the framework of viscoelasticity. The nonlinear integral-differential governing equation and related boundary conditions of are derived based on the extended Hamilton's principle and Euler–Bernoulli hypothesis for viscoelastic microbeams with clamped-free, clamped-clamped, simply-supported boundary conditions. The proposed model accounts for system nonlinearities including the axial residual stress, geometric nonlinearity due to midplane stretching, electrical forcing with fringing effect. The behavior of the microbeam is simulated using generalized Maxwell viscoelastic model. A new generalized differential/integral quadrature method is developed to solve the resulting governing equation. The developed model is verified against elastic behavior and a favorable agreement is obtained. Efficiency of the developed model is demonstrated by analyzing the quasistatic pull-in phenomena of electrically actuated viscoelastic microbeams with different boundaries at various material length scale parameters and axial residual stresses in the framework of linear viscoelasticity.     

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.     

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.     

Thermal and surface effects on the pull-in characteristics of circular nanoplate NEMS actuator based on nonlocal elasticity theory

This paper aims to investigate the coupling influences of thermal loading and surface effects on pull-in instability of electrically actuated circular nanoplate based on Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory, where the electrostatic force and thermally corrected Casimir force are considered. By utilizing the Kirchhoff plate theory, the nonlinear equilibrium equation of axisymmetric circular nanoplate with variable coefficients and clamped boundary conditions is derived and analytically solved. The results describe the influences of surface effect and thermal loading on pull-in displacements and pull-in voltages of nanoplate under thermal corrected Casimir force. It is seen that the surface effect becomes significant at the pull-in state with the decrease of nanoplate thicknesses, and the residual surface tension exerts a greater influence on the pull-in behavior compared to the surface elastic modulus. In addition, it is found that temperature change plays a great role in the pull-in phenomenon; when the temperature change grows, the circular nanoplate without applied voltage is also led to collapse.     

Nonlinear behavior of a nano-scale beam considering length scale-parameter

Size dependent behavior of materials arises for a structure when the characteristic size such as thickness or diameter is close to its internal length-scale parameter. In these cases, ignoring this behavior in modeling may leads to incorrect results. In this paper, strong effects of size dependence on static and dynamic behavior of electro-statically actuated nano-beams have been studied. The fixed points of the Aluminum nano-beams have been determined and shown that for a given DC voltage, there is a considerable difference between the calculated fixed points using classic beam theory and modified couple stress theory. In addition, it has been also shown that ignoring couple stress theory results in an order of magnitude error in calculated static and dynamic pull-in voltages. Some previous studies have applied the classic beam theory in their models and introduced a considerable hypothetical value of residual stress to justify the discrepancies between experimental and theoretical results.     

Class of analytical closed-form polynomial solutions for clamped–guided inhomogeneous beams

New closed-form solutions for the natural frequency of a clamped–guided beam are derived in this investigation. By postulating the mode shape of the clamped–guided beam, whose material density and stiffness are taken as polynomial functions, one is able to calculate the closed-form solution for its natural frequency. A remarkable property of the suggested method is its extreme simplicity.     

Comparison of generalized differential quadrature and Galerkin methods for the analysis of micro-electro-mechanical coupled systems

This paper presents a comprehensive comparison study between the generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) and the well-known global Galerkin method for analysis of pull-in behavior of nonlinear micro-electro-mechanical coupled systems. The nonlinear governing integro-differential equation for double clamped MEMS devices which was derived using variational principle by the authors [Sadeghian H, Rezazadeh G, Osterberg PM. Application of the generalized differential quadrature method to the study of pull-in phenomena of MEMS switches. J Microelectromech Syst 2007;16(6):1334–40] is discretized by applying Galerkin and GDQ methods. The divergence instability or pull-in phenomenon is analyzed. Obtained results are compared with the results of the pervious works. The Galerkin method is implemented with effect of number of used shape functions. Different types of trail functions on calculated pull-in voltage are examined.Furthermore, compare to one term and two terms truncation Galerkin method, it is observed that the GDQ with small number of grid points (non-uniform) performs accurate results for nonlinear micro-electro-mechanical coupled behavior which requires a large number of grid points at high-order approximation.     

Pull-in parameters of cantilever type nanomechanical switches in presence of Casimir force

In this paper, the effect of the Casimir force on pull-in parameters of cantilever type nanomechanical switches is investigated by using a distributed parameter model. In modeling of the electrostatic force, the fringing field effect is taken into account. The model is nonlinear due to the inherent nonlinearity of the Casimir and electrostatic forces. The nonlinear differential equation of the model is transformed into the integral form by using the Green’s function of the cantilever beam. The integral equation is solved analytically by assuming an appropriate shape function for the beam deflection. The pull-in parameters of the switch are computed in three cases including nanoactuators without applied voltages, microswitches, and the general case of nanocantilevers. Nanoactuators without applied voltages are studied to determine the detachment length and the minimum initial gap of freestanding nanocantilevers, which are the basic design parameters for NEMS switches. The pull-in parameters of microswitches are investigated as a special case of our study by neglecting the Casimir effect and the results are verified through comparison with other works published in the literature. The general case of nanocantilevers is studied considering coexistence of the electrostatic and Casimir forces. The results of the distributed parameter model are compared with the lumped parameter model.     

基于修正偶应力理论的Timoshenko微梁模型和尺寸效应研究

基于修正偶应力理论,将Timoshenko微梁的应力、偶应力、应变、曲率等基本变量,描述为位移分量偏导数的表达式.根据最小势能原理,推导了决定Timoshenko微梁位移场的位移场控微分方程.利用级数法求解了任意载荷作用下Timoshenko简支微梁的位移场控微分方程,得到了反映尺寸效应的挠度、转角及应力的偶应力理论解.通过对承受余弦分布载荷Timoshenko简支微梁的数值计算,研究了Timoshenko微梁的挠度、转角和应力的尺寸效应,分析了Poisson比对Timoshenko微梁力学行为及其尺寸效应的影响.结果表明:当截面高度与材料特征长度的比值小于5时,Timoshenko微梁的刚度和强度均随着截面高度的减小而显著提高,表现出明显的尺寸效应;当截面高度与材料特征长度的比值大于10时,Timoshenko微梁的刚度与强度均趋于稳定,尺寸效应可以忽略;材料Poisson比是影响Timoshenko微梁力学行为及尺寸效应的重要因素,Poisson比越大Timoshenko微梁刚度和强度的尺寸效应越显著.该文建立的Timoshenko微梁模型,能有效描述Timoshenko微梁的力学行为及尺寸效应,可为微电子机械系统（MEMS）中的微结构设计与分析提供理论基础和技术参考.     

Bending analysis of size-dependent functionally graded annular sector microplates based on the modified couple stress theory

In the present paper, a non-classical model for functionally graded annular sector microplates under distributed transverse loading is developed based on the modified couple stress theory and the first-order shear deformation plate theory. The model contains a single material length scale parameter which can capture the size effect. The material properties are graded through the thickness of plates according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. The equilibrium equations and boundary conditions are simultaneously derived from the principle of minimum total potential energy. The system of equilibrium equations is then solved using the generalized differential quadrature method. The effects of length scale parameter, power-law index and geometrical parameters on the bending response of annular sector plates subjected to distributed transverse loading 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.     

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.