Small scale effects on buckling and postbuckling behaviors of axially loaded FGM nanoshells based on nonlocal strain gradient elasticity theory

By means of a comprehensive theory of elasticity, namely, a nonlocal strain gradient continuum theory, size-dependent nonlinear axial instability characteristics of cylindrical nanoshells made of functionally graded material (FGM) are examined. To take small scale effects into consideration in a more accurate way, a nonlocal stress field parameter and an internal length scale parameter are incorporated simultaneously into an exponential shear deformation shell theory. The variation of material properties associated with FGM nanoshells is supposed along the shell thickness, and it is modeled based on the Mori-Tanaka homogenization scheme. With a boundary layer theory of shell buckling and a perturbation-based solving process, the nonlocal strain gradient load-deflection and load-shortening stability paths are derived explicitly. It is observed that the strain gradient size effect causes to the increases of both the critical axial buckling load and the width of snap-through phenomenon related to the postbuckling regime, while the nonlocal size dependency leads to the decreases of them. Moreover, the influence of the nonlocal type of small scale effect on the axial instability characteristics of FGM nanoshells is more than that of the strain gradient one.