Nonlinear forced vibration of strain gradient microbeams

In this paper, the strain gradient theory, a non-classical continuum theory able to capture the size effect happening in micro-scale structures, is employed in order to investigate the size-dependent nonlinear forced vibration of Euler-Bernoulli microbeams. The nonlinearities are caused by mid-plane stretching and nonlinear external forces such as van-der-Waals force. The nonlinear governing equations of the microbeams are solved analytically utilizing the perturbation techniques. The primary, super-harmonic and sub-harmonic resonances of a microbeam are studied and the size-dependency of the frequency responses is assessed. The results indicate that the nonlinear forced vibration behavior of microbeams is size-dependent and the ratio of the microbeam thickness to the material length scale parameter, an additional material property appearing in the strain gradient theory, plays an important role. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.