Effects of porosity and flexoelectricity on static bending and free vibration of AFG piezoelectric nanobeams

Abstract In this paper, based on the strain gradient theory, a size-dependent porous axially functional gradient (AFG) flexoelectric Euler-Bernoulli nanobeam model is developed. A modified power-law formula incorporating porosity volume fraction is presented to describe material properties of porous AFG nanobeam, and two typical porosity distributions patterns are considered. The generalized differential quadrature method is employed to discretize governing equations into a series of linear algebraic equations, so that the static bending deflections and free vibration frequencies are calculated conveniently for various boundary conditions. The credibility of the present mathematical formulation and the associated numerical solution are validated by comparing the results in previous literatures. Parametric studies are performed to illustrate the effects of the flexoelectricity, material length scale parameters, functionally graded index, porosity volume fraction, porosity distribution patterns on the static bending and free vibration behaviors of porous AFG flexoelectric nanobeam. The numerical results may provide support for the application of porous AFG flexoelectric nanobeam in Nano-electro-mechanical system.