Nonlinear bending and buckling for strain gradient elastic beams

Nonlinear bending of strain gradient elastic thin beams is studied adopting Bernoulli–Euler principle. Simple nonlinear strain gradient elastic theory with surface energy is employed. In fact linear constitutive relations for strain gradient elastic theory with nonlinear strains are adopted. The governing beam equations with its boundary conditions are derived through a variational method. New terms are considered, already introduced for linear cases, indicating the importance of the cross-section area, in addition to moment of inertia in bending of thin beams. Those terms strongly increase the stiffness of the thin beam. The non-linear theory is applied to buckling problems of thin beams, especially in the study of the postbuckling behaviour.