Surface Effects on Large Deflection of Nanobeams Subjected to a Follower Load

Abstract

As a basic element of the micro/nanodevices, nanobeams have remarkable physical properties and have attracted considerable attention in the previous studies. However, previous publications did not study the large deformation problem of nanobeams under follower loading when the surface effect becomes significant and especially for the influence of surface effect on mechanical behaviors of the nanobeams under follower loading remains unclear. In this paper, we investigated the large deformation behavior of nanobeams subjected to follower loads in consideration of the surface effects. The mechanical model of large deflection of extensible cantilever nanobeams under follower loading is presented in combination with the surface elasticity and residual surface stress, and then a MATLAB program of shooting method with a technique for determining the initial value was developed to solve the problems. The results indicate that the surface effects have an important influence on the large deflection of nanobeams under follower loading: when the surface residual stress is positive, the maximums of displacement in horizontal and vertical directions and the rotation angle of the free end become lager, but the corresponding follower force related to those maximums becomes smaller. When the residual surface stress is negative, the results are the opposite. In addition, the influence of the cross-sectional dimension of the nanobeams under follower loading on surface effects was discussed. This work is beneficial to understand the mechanism of large deformation of nanobeams with surface effects subjected to follower loads, and can also provide inspirations to design advanced nanomaterials and nanoscaled devices.