Nonlinear stability and vibration of pre/post-buckled microstructure-dependent FGPM actuators

The present study deals with the study of the nonlinear stability and small free vibration of microstructure-dependent functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) beams in pre/post-buckling regimes. The Timoshenko beam theory with various inplane and out-of-plane boundary conditions are considered under different types of mechanical and thermal loads. The beam is assumed to be under inplane mechanical, thermal, and electrical excitations. Each thermo-electro-mechanical property of the beam is graded across the thickness (i.e., height) of the beam, based on a power law model. The von Kármán type geometric nonlinearity is included to account for the large deflection behavior of the beam under inplane loads. The modified couple stress theory is included to account for the size effects. A weak-form, displacement-based, finite element formulation is developed to discretize the equations of motion. The resulting system of nonlinear algebraic equations is solved using Newton’s iterative method. The numerical results of frequencies and lateral deflections as a function of load parameters reveal the existence of bifurcation or critical states in some cases. The effects of load type, microstructural dependency, boundary conditions, beam geometry, composition rule of the constituents, and actuator voltage are discussed through the various parametric studies.