Bifurcation Analysis of an Electrostatically Actuated Nano-Beam Based on Modified Couple Stress Theory

In this paper, the nonlinear size-dependent static and dynamic behavior of an electrostatically actuated nano-beam is investigated. A fully clamped nano-beam is considered for the modeling of the deformable electrode of the NEMS. The governing differential equation of the motion is derived using Hamiltonian principle based on couple stress theory; a non-classical theory for considering length scale effects. The nonlinear partial differential equation of the motion is discretized to a nonlinear Duffing type ODE’s using Galerkin method. Static and dynamic pull-in instabilities obtained by both classical theory and MCST are compared. At the second stage of analysis, shooting technique is utilized to obtain the frequency response curve, and to capture the periodic solutions of the motion; the stability of the periodic solutions are gained by Floquet theory. The nonlinear dynamic behavior of the deformable electrode due to the AC harmonic accompanied with size dependency is investigated. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.