On well-posed integral nonlocal gradient piezoelectric models for static bending of functionally graded piezoelectric nanobeam (Q2168477)

The authors propose general strain- and stress-driven integral nonlocal gradient piezoelectric models (INGPM), which can describe both the softening and toughening size-effects due to elasticity and piezoelectricity in nanostructures. The approach is an extension of previous work on elasticity with nonlocality of higher-order strain gradients to piezoelectric media, and is an improvement of the existing nonlocal continuum theories to include electric field gradients as well. The relations between mechanical displacements and strain are those of linear elasticity, while the electric field is derived from a potential. For convenience, the central integral constitutive equations are transformed into equivalent differential forms with corresponding constitutive constraints. The differential governing equations and standard boundary conditions for functionally graded piezoelectric Euler-Bernoulli nanobeams are then derived. The beam is subjected to a transverse distributed load and to bending moments and forces at its ends, the polarization direction is perpendicular to the beam. The obtained differential forms are applied to establish the relation between general nonlocal stress and strain components. It is shown that the model leads to well-posed mathematical problems, while neglecting the constitutive constraints leads to ill-posedness. A discretized form of the equations, boundary conditions and constitutive constraints is then presented, in view of a numerical solution, by which the mathematical problem is reduced to a system of linear algebraic equations. Several examples are considered for nonlocal gradient piezoelectric Euler-Bernoulli nanobeams under different boundary and loading conditions. The influence of the size-dependent length scale parameters is studied, and numerical results are presented and discussed. Concluding remarks are outlined concerning the effect of the scale parameters on the bending deflections.