Thermoelastic damping analysis in micro-beam resonators in the frame of modified couple stress and Moore–Gibson–Thompson (MGT) thermoelasticity theories

Abstract

The thermoelastic coupling between strain and temperature fields arising out from temperature gradient, while bending of an oscillating structure, leads to irreversible heat conduction, which causes energy dissipation in such vibrating systems. The estimation of thermoelastic damping (TED) in micro- and nano-mechanical resonators is a significant aspect of acquiring a high quality factor (Q-factor). Yang et al. [Couple stress based strain gradient theory for elasticity. Int J Solids Struct. 2002;39(10):2731–2743.] developed the modified couple stress theory (MCST) that involves only one material length scale parameter. The present work attempts to investigate TED in micro/nano-beam resonators utilizing MCST and the recently proposed Moore–Gibson–Thompson (MGT) generalized thermoelasticity theory. Adopting the frequency approach method, we derive the size-dependent expression of the inverse quality factor for evaluating TED in rectangular micro/nano-beam resonators. Furthermore, the impact of the material length scale parameter on TED associated with MCST for silicon micro-beam resonator is investigated in detail by comparing the present results with those predicted by classical continuum theory (CCT). The obtained results are also compared with the existing results for the Lord–Shulman (LS) and Green–Naghdi (GN-III) thermoelasticity theories. Moreover, the effects of other important parameters like beam thickness, beam length, aspect ratio, phase-lag on TED in the present context are highlighted.