Size Effects of Hair-Sized Structures – Torsion

Abstract

Conventional strain-based mechanics theory does not account for contributions from strain gradients. Failure to include the strain gradient contributions can lead to underestimates of stresses and size-dependent behaviors in small-scaled structure [1]. This paper focus on the structural size effects on torsion of cylinders. The torsional stiffness of cylinders can be higher than conventional expectation when the cylinder size is in the nanometer - or micron-scale. Following the Saint-Venant theory of torsion, we established the equation of torsion in terms of the warping function on the basis of the nano-mechanical theory of elasticity. The torsional equations contain two higher order material length scale parameters and two conventional Lame constants. The equilibrium equation is a fourth order partial differential equation which can be reduced to two second order equations. Two formulations in terms of pseudo warping function and stress function are presented. Closed-form solutions for circular and thin wall section and series solutions for rectangular microbars have been obtained. The total torque depends only on the stresses conjugated to the strain and is only implicitly dependent on the higher order stress metrics. The solution reveals that the torsional rigidity is dependent on the higher order length scale parameters and strain gradients and increases asymptotically upward when the cylinder size is reduced to the size of the higher order length scale material parameters. The increase is most marked for thin walled cylinders, stiffening to more then 10 times the conventional value when the cylinder size is near that of the higher order length scaled parameters.