Thermal loading effects on electro-mechanical vibration behavior of piezoelectrically actuated inhomogeneous size-dependent Timoshenko nanobeams

Abstract

In the present study, thermo-electro-mechanical vibration characteristics of functionally graded piezoelectric (FGP) Timoshenko nanobeams subjected to in-plane thermal loads and applied electric voltage are carried out by presenting a Navier type solution for the first time. Three kinds of thermal loading, namely, uniform, linear and non-linear temperature rises through the thickness direction are considered. Thermo-electro-mechanical properties of FGP nanobeam are supposed to vary smoothly and continuously throughout the thickness based on power-law model. Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is exploited to describe the size dependency of nanobeam. Using Hamilton's principle, the nonlocal equations of motion together with corresponding boundary conditions based on Timoshenko beam theory are obtained for the free vibration analysis of graded piezoelectric nanobeams including size effect and they are solved applying analytical solution. According to the numerical results, it is revealed that the proposed modeling can provide accurate frequency results of the FGP nanobeams as compared to some cases in the literature. In following a parametric study is accompanied to examine the effects of several parameters such as various temperature distributions, external electric voltage, power-law index, nonlocal parameter and mode number on the natural frequencies of the size-dependent FGP nanobeams in detail. It is found that the small scale effect and thermo-electrical loading have a significant effect on natural frequencies of FGP nanobeams.