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International Journal of Applied Mechanics
Vol. 6, No. 3 (2014) 1450030 (22 pages)
c Imperial College Press
DOI: 10.1142/S1758825114500306
THE INFLUENCE OF SMALL SCALE ON THE PULL-IN
BEHAVIOR OF NONLOCAL NANOBRIDGES CONSIDERING
SURFACE EFFECT, CASIMIR AND
VAN DER WAALS ATTRACTIONS
HAMID M. SEDIGHI
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Shahid Chamran University
Ahvaz 61357-43337, Iran
hmsedighi@gmail.com
h.msedighi@scu.ac.ir
Received 8 October 2013
Revised 24 January 2014
Accepted 28 January 2014
Published 10 April 2014
This paper is proposed to study the dynamic pull-in instability of nonlocal nanobridges
incorporating the surface eect and intermolecular forces. The second-order frequency-
amplitude relation is introduced via an asymptotic approach namely homotopy pertur-
bation method (HPM). The eects of applied voltage and intermolecular parameters on
pull-in instability as well as the natural frequency are investigated. Furthermore, the
inuence of nonlocal parameter and surface energy on the dynamic pull-in voltage is
considered. It is shown that two terms in series expansions are sucient to produce an
acceptable solution of the mentioned nanostructure. The obtained results from numeri-
cal methods verify the strength of the analytical procedure. The qualitative analysis of
the system dynamic shows that the equilibrium points of the autonomous system include
center points with periodic trajectories and unstable saddle points with homoclinic orbits.
Keywords: Nonlocal nanoactuator; surface eect; Casimir and van der Waals attractions;
dynamic pull-in instability; homotopy perturbation method.
1. Introduction
Over the last few years, the applications of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS)
due to their excellent mechanical and electrical properties have been developed and
accordingly interest in the nonlinear analysis of nanoscale structures has been grown
[Guo and Zhao, 2006; Tadi Beni et al., 2011; Kacem, 2011; Chan et al., 2011; Koochi
et al., 2012; Hasheminejad et al., 2012; Sedighi et al., 2014]. Nanotechnological inves-
tigation on vibration properties of nanobeams under certain support conditions is
important because such components can be used in components such as nanosen-
sors and nanoactuators. As the dimensions of a structure approach the nanoscale,
the properties and elastic eld can be size-dependent and new phenomena such
as van der Waals [Soroush et al., 2010] and Casimir forces [Noghrehabadi et al.,
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H. M. Sedighi
2012] should be taken into consideration. The eect of vacuum uctuations can
be modeled through the dispersion forces, i.e., Casimir and van der Waals attrac-
tions. The van der Waals force represents the electrostatic interaction between pair
of magnetic poles at the atomic scale. The Casimir eect stands for the attrac-
tive force between two at parallel plates of solids which originates from quantum
uctuations in the ground state of the electromagnetic eld [Moghimi Zand and
Ahmadian, 2010]. Several investigations have studied the pull-in instability and
nonlinear analysis of nanoscale structures by employing dierent assumptions and
theories [Rasekh and Khadem, 2011; Mahmoud et al., 2012; Tadi Beni et al., 2013].
A distributed parameter model was employed by Ramezani et al. [2007] to deter-
mine the minimum initial gap and detachment length of nanoprobes in the pres-
ence of dispersion eects and electrostatic actuation. Vibration characteristics of
non-uniform single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) conveying uid embedded
in viscoelastic medium has been investigated by Raei et al. [2012] using nonlocal
EulerBernoulli beam theory. Sahmani and Ansari [2011] investigated the buckling
analysis of nanobeams using nonlocal continuum beam models of the dierent clas-
sical beam theories. They presented their results for dierent geometric parameters,
boundary conditions, and values of nonlocal parameter. Daneshmand et al. [2013]
introduced a gradient-enriched shell formulation based on the rst-order shear defor-
mation shell model to analyze dynamic behavior of SWCNTs. Their model includes
two length scale size parameters related to the strain gradients and inertia gradients.
They investigate the eects of the aspect ratio, transverse shear, circumferential and
half-axial wave numbers and length scale parameters on dierent vibration modes
of the SWCNTs.
In classical continuum mechanics, the eect of surface energy is ignored. How-
ever, the experimental results have shown that for nanoscale structures, the surface
eects become signicant due to the high surface/volume ratio [Hasheminejad et al.,
2011]. Classical elasticity cannot model the size eect and the signicant surface con-
tribution in nanotype structures [Eltaher et al., 2013]. Gurtin and Murdoch [1978]
developed a surface elasticity theory for isotropic materials and modeled the sur-
face layer of a solid as a membrane with negligible thickness. Mahmoud et al. [2012]
developed the nonlocal nite element model to study the static bending behavior of
nanobeams, taking into consideration the surface eects. Li et al. [2011] presented
the analytical solution for the transverse vibration of simply supported nanobeams
subjected to an initial axial force based on nonlocal elasticity theory. A modied
continuum model of electrically actuated nanobeams by incorporating surface elas-
ticity has been presented by Fu and Zhang [2011]. They solved the complex math-
ematical problem by the analog equation method (AEM) and discussed the eects
of the surface energies on the static and dynamic responses, pull-in voltage and
pull-in time.
The inuence of surface eects on the pull-in instability of a cantilever nanoac-
tuators has been investigated by Koochi et al. [2012] incorporating the inuence of
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Pull-in Behavior of Nonlocal Nanobridges Considering Surface Eect
Casimir attraction. A nonlocal nite element model was developed by Eltaher et al.
[2013] to study the vibration characteristics of nanobeams, taking into account the
surface eects.
There have been several approaches employed to solve the governing nonlinear
dierential equations to study the nonlinear oscillations such as maxmin approach
[He, 2008], energy balance method [Sedighi et al., 2012a], variational iteration
method [Ghadimi et al., 2012], homotopy analysis method [Sedighi et al., 2012b],
ADM-Pade technique [Noghrehabadi et al., 2012], optimal homotopy asymptotic
method [Kaliji et al., 2012], parameter expansion method [Shou and He, 2007;
Sedighi et al., 2012c, 2012d], hamiltonian approach (HA) [He, 2010] and iteration
perturbation method [Sedighi et al., 2013]. Recently an asymptotic approach namely
homotopy perturbation method (HPM) proposed by He [2003] has proven to be a
very eective and convenient method for solving nonlinear governing equations.
The present article intends to provide the second-order frequency amplitude
relation in order to study the dynamic pull-in behavior of vibrating nonlocal
nanobridges in the presence of intermolecular forces and surface eects. To this
end, analytical expressions for vibrational response of nanoactuated beam based on
nonlocal elastic theory with incorporating Casimir and van der Waals eects are
presented. The obtained approximate solution demonstrates that two terms in series
expansions is sucient to obtain a highly accurate solution of nanobeam vibration.
Finally, the inuences of vibration amplitude, actuation voltage, surface eect and
nonlocal parameters on the pull-in instability and natural frequency are studied.
2. Mathematical Modeling
A doubly-clamped beam-type nanostructure illustrated in Fig. 1 has length l, cross-
section area A with thickness h and width b, density and bulk modulus of elasticity
E. The air initial gap is g and an attractive electrostatic force which originates from
voltage V causes the nanobridge to deform. The nanoscale beam, based on Gurtin
Murdoch model is adopted to have an elastic surface with zero thickness with specic
material characteristics which accounts for the surface energy eects and assumed
to be perfectly bonded to its bulk material.
The free-body diagram of an innitely small nanobeam element with length dx is
shown in Fig. 2. The contact tractions T
x
and T
z
stands for the interaction between
the surface layer and bulk material. The bending moment and shear force act on the
cross-section are denoted by M and Q, respectively. Using Newtons second law, the
governing equations for the bending moment and transverse force can be expressed
as [Fu and Zhang, 2011]:
Q
x
+
_
s
T
z
ds + q(x, t) A

2
w
t
2
= 0, (1)
M
x

_
s
T
x
zds + Q N
w
x
= 0, (2)
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Fig. 1. Schematic representation of a nanobridge.
Fig. 2. Free-body diagram of nanobeam element.
where S is the perimeter of the cross-section and q(x, t) is the transverse load
per unit length of the nanobeam. The transverse force includes electrostatic actu-
ation q
es
(x, t) and dispersion force q
n
(x, t), where the index n is 3 for the van der
Waals force and 4 for the Casimir eect. The distributed electrostatic force can be
expressed as [Tadi beni et al., 2013]:
q
es
(x, t) =
bV
2
2(g w)
2
_
1 +
es
(g w)
b
_
, (3)
where = 8.854 10
12
C
2
N
1
m
2
is the permittivity of vacuum, w represents
the transverse deection and the parameter
es
= 0.65 represents the fringing-eld
eect. The van der Waals attraction per unit length of the beam can be written as
[Soroush et al., 2010]:
q
3
(x, t) =
A
h
b
6(g w)
3
, (4)
where A
h
is the Hamaker constant with values in the range [0.4, 4] 10
19
. The
Casimir eect which originates from quantum uctuations is dened as follows:
q
4
(x, t) =

2
bc
240(g w)
4
, (5)
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Pull-in Behavior of Nonlocal Nanobridges Considering Surface Eect
where = 1.055 10
34
is the Plancks constant divided by 2 and c = 2.998
10
8
m/s is the speed of light. Substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (1) results in:

2
M
x
2


x
_
s
T
x
zds
_
s
T
z
ds q(x, t)

x
_
N
w
x
_
+ A

2
w
t
2
= 0. (6)
The equilibrium equation for the stresses of the surface layer is governed by
[GurtinMurdoch, 1978]:

ix
x
T
i
=
0

2
u
s
i
t
2
, (7)
where i = x, z,
0
represents the mass density of surface layer and u
s
i
is the deection
of the surface layer in the i direction. Substitution of Eq. (7) into Eq. (6) yields:

2
M
x
2


x
_
s

xx
x
zds
_
s

zx
x
ds q(x, t)

x
_
N
w
x
_
+A

2
w
t
2
+
_
s

2
u
s
z
t
2
ds = 0. (8)
The governing equations for the axial force, bending moment and constitutive rela-
tions of the surface layer are expressed as follows [Fu and Zhang, 2011]:
N (w) =
EA
2l
_
l
0
_
w
x
_
2
dx + N
0
, (9)
M = EI

2
w
x
2

2vI
h
_

2
w
x
2

0

2
w
t
2
_
, (10)

xx
=
0
+ E
0
_
u
x
z

2
w
x
2
_
, (11)

zx
=
0
w
x
. (12)
Substituting of Eqs. (9)(12) into Eq. (8) gives the following vibrational equation
for a local nanobeam incorporating the surface energy eect and dispersion forces
as:
_
EI + E
0
I
0

2vI
0
h
_

4
w
x
4
+ (A +
0
S
0
)

2
w
t
2
+
2vI
0
h

4
w
x
2
t
2
= q(x, t),
_

0
S
0
+ N
0
+
EA
2l
_
l
0
_
w
x
_
2
dx
_

2
w
x
2
,
(13)
where
0
is the initial residual surface stress under, E
0
is the elasticity of surface
layer, v is the Poissons ratio of the bulk material and I
0
=
_
S
z
2
dS represents the
perimeter moment of inertia. For the rectangular nanobeam we have S
0
= 2b. By
assuming the identical nonlocal parameter for both bulk material and surface layer,
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H. M. Sedighi
the nonlocal constitutive relations for the nanoscale beams can be written as follows
[Mahmoud et al., 2012]:
_
1 e
2
0
a
2

2
x
2
_
M
nl
= M
l
, (14)
_
1 e
2
0
a
2

2
x
2
_

nl
xx
=
l
xx
, (15)
_
1 e
2
0
a
2

2
x
2
_

nl
zx
=
l
zx
, (16)
where e
0
and a represent the nonlocal eects dependent on material and an internal
characteristic length nanoscale. Therefore, according to Eq. (13), the governing
equation for the nonlocal nanobeams, can be written as:

2
M
nl
x
2


x
_
s

nl
xx
x
zds
_
s

nl
zx
x
ds q(x, t)

x
_
N
w
x
_
+A

2
w
t
2
+
_
s

2
u
s
z
t
2
ds = 0. (17)
In order to achieve the governing equation, Eq. (17) is multiplied by the nonlocal
operator (1 e
2
0
a
2

2
/x
2
) and assuming
nl
xx
=
l
xx
,
nl
zx
=
l
zx
[Mahmoud et al.,
2012], the governing equation (17) can be rearranged as:

2
M
x
2


x
_
s

xx
x
zds
_
s

zx
x
ds +
_
1 e
2
0
a
2

2
x
2
_

_
q(x, t)

x
_
N
w
x
_
+ (A +
0
S
0
)

2
w
t
2
_
= 0. (18)
Substituting Eq. (11) into Eq. (18) results in the following vibrational equation for
nonlocal nanobeams as:
_
EI + E
0
I
0

2vI
0
h
_

4
w
x
4
+
2vI
0
h

4
w
x
2
t
2

0
S
0

2
w
x
2
=
_
1 e
2
0
a
2

2
x
2
_
_
q(x, t) +
_
N
0
+
EA
2l
_
l
0
_
w
x
_
2
dx
_

2
w
x
2
(A +
0
S
0
)

2
w
t
2
_
. (19)
The beam vibration is subjected to the following four kinematic boundary
conditions:
w(0, t) = 0, w

(0, t) = 0, w(l, t) = 0, w

(l, t) = 0, (20)
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Pull-in Behavior of Nonlocal Nanobridges Considering Surface Eect
By introducing the following nondimensional variables
=

EI
bhl
4
t, W =
w
g
, =
x
l
, = 6
_
g
h
_
2
, =
g
b
, =
E
0
I
0
EI
,

1
=
2v
0
Eh
,
2
=

0
S
0
l
2
EI
,

V
2
=
6V
2
l
4
Eh
3
g
3
,
3
=
A
h
bl
4
6EI g
4
,

4
=

2
hcbl
4
240EI g
5
, f
i
=
N
0
l
2
EI
,
0
=
e
0
a
l
,
1
=
v
0
h
6l
2
,
2
=

0
S
0
A
(21)
the nondimensional equation of motion for nonlocal nanobeam vibration incorpo-
rating surface eects and dispersion forces can be written as:
(1 +
1
)

4
W

4
+
1

4
W

2

2

2

2
W

2
=
_
1
2
0

2
__

V
2
(1 W)
2
(1 +
es
(1 W)) +

n
(1 W)
n
+
_
f
i
+
_
1
0
_
W

_
2
d
_

2
W

2
(1 +
2
)

2
W

2
_
. (22)
Assuming W(, ) = q( )(), where () is the rst eigenmode of the doubly-
clamped beam and can be expressed as:
() = cosh() cos()
cosh() cos()
sinh() sin()
(sinh() sin()), (23)
where = 4.73 is the root of characteristic equation for rst eigenmode. Using
Taylors series expansion for q
es
and q
n
and applying the BubnovGalerkin decom-
position method, the nondimensional nonlinear equation of motion can be written
as:
d
2
q
d
2
+
1n
q( ) + [
2n
(q( ))
2
+
3n
(q( ))
3
+
4n
(q( ))
4
+
0n
] = 0, (24)
where the parameters
0n
, . . . ,
4n
have been described in the appendix.
3. Application of Homotopy Perturbation Method
Consider the following nonlinear dierential equation [He, 2003]:
A(u) f(r) = 0, r (25)
which is subjected to the following boundary condition:
B
_
u,
u
t
_
= 0 r , (26)
where A and B represents the dierential and boundary operators, f(r) is a known
function and is the boundary of domain . The operator A may be separated into
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H. M. Sedighi
linear part L and nonlinear part N. Then, Eq. (25) can be rearranged as below:
L(u) + N(u) f(r) = 0. (27)
One may formulate the following homotopy equation for Eq. (25) as:
H(, p) = (1 p)[L() L(u
0
)] + p[A() f(r)] = 0. (28)
In the above equation, p [0, 1] is an homotopy parameter and u
0
is the trial
solution for the approximation which should satisfy the initial condition. The solu-
tion of Eq. (28) may be expressed as a power series in p as:
=
0
+ p
1
+ p
2

2
+ . (29)
The embedding parameter p is employed to expand the square of the unknown
oscillation fundamental frequency as follows:

0
=
2
p
1
p
2

2
, (30)
where
0
is the coecient of u(r) in Eq. (25) and should be substituted by the right
hand side of Eq. (20) and the coecients
i
(i = 1, 2, . . .) are arbitrary parameters
that should be determined. Setting the embedding parameter p = 1, the approxi-
mations for the solution and the fundamental frequency are
u = lim
p1
=
0
+
1
+
2
+ , (31)

2
=
0
+
1
+
2
+ . (32)
Now the HPM can be applied to Eq. (24). In this direction, the homotopy equation
can be constructed in the following form:
H(q, p) = (1 p)[ q +
1n
q] + p[ q +
1n
q +
2n
q
2
+
3n
q
3
+
4n
q
4
+
0n
] = 0.
(33)
According to HPM, we assume that the solution of Eq. (33) can be expressed in
a series of homotopy parameter p:
q( ) = q( ) + pq
1
( ) + p
2
q
2
( ) + (34)
the coecient of q is expanded into a series in p in a similar way [He, 2003]:

1n
=
2
p
1
p
2

2
+ . (35)
Substituting Eqs. (34) and (35) into Eq. (33) and rearranging based on powers of
p-terms yields:
p
0
: q
0
( ) +
2
q
0
( ) = 0, q
0
(0) = A, q
0
(0) = 0, (36a)
p
1
: q
1
( ) +
2
q
1
( ) =
1
q
0
( )
2n
(q
0
( ))
2
+
3n
(q
0
( ))
3
+
4n
(q
0
( ))
4
+
0n
, q
1
(0) = 0, q
1
(0) = 0, (36b)
p
2
: q
2
( ) +
2
q
2
( ) =
1
q
1
( ) +
2
q
0
( ) [2
2n
q
0
( )q
1
( ) + 3
3n
(q
0
( ))
2
q
1
( )
+4
4n
(q
0
( ))
3
q
1
( )] [
2n
(q
0
( ))
2
+
3n
(q
0
( ))
3
+
4n
(q
0
( ))
4
+
0n
], q
2
(0) = 0, q
2
(0) = 0. (36c)
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Pull-in Behavior of Nonlocal Nanobridges Considering Surface Eect
Since the solution of Eq. (36a) is q
0
= Acos( ), the solution of Eq. (36b) should
not contain the so-called secular term cos(). Substitution of this result into the
right-hand side of Eq. (36b) yields:
q
1
( ) +
2
q
1
( )
=
_

1
A
3
4

3n
A
3
_
cos( ) +
_

1
2

4n
A
4

1
2

2n
A
2
_
cos(2 )

1
2

2n
A
2

3
8

4n
A
4

1
4

3n
A
3
cos(3 )
0n

1
8

4n
A
4
cos(4 ). (37)
No secular terms in q
1
( ) require eliminating contributions proportional to cos( )
on the right-hand side of Eq. (37), we have:

1
=
3
4

3n
A
2
. (38)
Solving Eq. (37) for q
1
( ) gives the following second order approximation for
q
1
( ) as:
q
1
( ) =
cos( )(48
4n
A
4
+ 160
2n
A
2
15
3n
A
3
+ 480
0n
)
480
2
+
cos(2 )(80
4n
A
4
+ 80
2n
A
2
)
480
2
+

3n
A
3
cos(3 )
32
2
+

4n
A
4
cos(4 )
120
2
+
480
0n
180
4n
A
4
240
2n
A
2
480
2
. (39)
Equation (35) for two terms approximation of series respect to p and for p = 1
yields:

2
=
2

1n

1
(40)
substitution of Eq. (40) into the right-hand side of Eq. (36c) for q
2
( ) and elimi-
nating the secular terms gives:
S() =
5
6

2
2n
A
3

7
4

4n

2n
A
5
+
1
2

3n

2n
A
4
+
3
2

3n

0n
A
2

63
80

2
4n
A
7
+
3
10

3n

4n
A
6
+
1n
A
2
2
2n

0n
A +
3
4

3n
A
3

3
128

2
3n
A
5
3
4n

0n
A
3
A
4
= 0 (41)
solving Eq. (41) for the fundamental frequency results in the second-order frequency-
amplitude relation for vibrating nonlocal nanobridge actuators as follows:
(A) =
_

1n
2
+
3
8

3n
A
2
+
_

2
1n
4
+
3
1n

3n
A
2
8
+
15
2
3n
A
4
128

7
2n

4n
A
4
4
+

2n

3n
A
3
2
+
3
0n

3n
A
2

5
2
2n
A
2
6
+
3
3n

4n
A
5
10
3
4n

0n
A
2

63
2
4n
A
6
80
2
2n

0n
_
1/2
_
1/2
. (42)
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H. M. Sedighi
4. Results and Discussion
To elucidate the strength of approximate solution by HPM, the analytical solu-
tions together with the corresponding numerical results have been plotted in Fig. 3.
As can be observed, for both intermolecular forces, the second-order approximation
for q( ) displays excellent agreement with numerical solutions using RungeKutta
method.
The inuence of initial amplitude on the natural frequency as well as dynamic
pull-in behavior of doubly-clamped nanoactuators has been illustrated in Figs. 47.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3. Comparison of the results of analytical solutions with numerical solution for A = 0.5,
3
=
0.1,
4
= 0.1, = 1, f
i
= 1,

V = 4.5. (a) van der Waals and (b) Casimir forces.
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Pull-in Behavior of Nonlocal Nanobridges Considering Surface Eect
(a)
(b)
Fig. 4. Fundamental frequency versus initial amplitude of nanobridge vibration: (a) the eect of
van der Waals parameter
3
, (b) the eect of Casimir parameter
4
.
Figure 4 illustrates the fundamental frequency of nanobridge for some values of van
der Waals and Casimir parameters
3
,
4
. It is concluded that the fundamental
frequency of nanobridge actuator decreases as the dispersion force parameters
increase. In addition, as the initial amplitude increases, the fundamental frequency
decreases to pull-in point and the nanostructure diverges to the rigid plate. Near the
dynamic pull-in point, a small increase in the initial amplitude causes the nanobeam
to be dynamically unstable. It is obvious from Fig. 4 that when the Casimir force
is taken into account, the dynamic pull-in instability happens in the long regions
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H. M. Sedighi
(a)
(b)
Fig. 5. Fundamental frequency versus initial amplitude of nanobridge vibration, the impact of
nonlocal parameter
0
: (a) eect of van der Waals force, (b) eect of Casimir force.
of initial amplitude, in comparison with van der Waals attraction. Moreover, as
the nondimensional parameters
3
,
4
increase, periodic motions occur in the short
regions of vibrational amplitude.
The impact of nonlocal parameter
0
on the dynamic pull-in instability of
nanobeams is shown in Fig. 5. It appears from this gure that the fundamental
frequency decreases as the nonlocal parameter
0
increases. In addition, for both
intermolecular forces, the pull-in instability occurs in the short regions of initial
amplitude by increasing the nondimensional nonlocal parameter
0
.
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Pull-in Behavior of Nonlocal Nanobridges Considering Surface Eect
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. Fundamental frequency versus initial amplitude of nanobridge vibration, the impact of
voltage parameter

V : (a) eect of van der Waals force, (b) eect of Casimir force.
The inuence of actuation voltage

V on the fundamental frequency as a function
of initial amplitude of vibration has been illustrated in Fig. 6. It is clear that the
fundamental frequency decreases as the parameter

V increases and pull-in instability
happens in the long domains of normalized amplitude when the nanobeam natural
frequency drops to zero.
The signicant inuence of axial force parameter f
i
is shown in Fig. 7, where the
characteristic curves of fundamental frequency are compared. As can be observed,
the fundamental frequency increases as the axial force increases. The frequency
vanishes and pull-in instability occurs in the long regions of vibrational amplitude
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H. M. Sedighi
(a)
(b)
Fig. 7. Fundamental frequency versus initial amplitude of nanobridges, the impact of axial load
parameter f
i
: (a) eect of van der Waals force, (b) eect of Casimir force.
by decreasing the nondimensional parameter f
i
, for both van der Waals and Casimir
force models.
The phase portraits of nonlocal nanobeam actuator employing Casimir and van
der Waals attractions in the absence of applied voltage are plotted in Fig. 8. Accord-
ing to Figs. 8(a) and 8(b), it is concluded that without the applied voltage, there
exist the equilibrium point Q
1
as a center point, and there are periodic orbits around
it. Homoclinic orbits start from unstable saddle node Q
2
and goes back to it. It can
be observed that in the absence of actuation voltage, the nanoactuator exhibits
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(a)
(b)
Fig. 8. The phase portrait of nonlocal nanoactuator without the actuation voltage (

V = 0) for

0
= 0.1: (a) eect of van der Waals force
3
= 30, (b) eect of Casimir force
4
= 30.
periodic oscillation near the equilibrium point Q
1
and collapse onto the rigid plate
beyond the saddle point Q
2
. In particular, under the eect of Casimir attraction
force, the stable periodic orbits convert to unstable orbits at lower values of initial
conditions.
It appears from Fig. 9 that when the actuation voltage is applied, the unstable
saddle node Q
2
becomes closer to stable point Q
1
. In other words, in the presence
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H. M. Sedighi
(a)
(b)
Fig. 9. The phase portrait of nonlocal nanoactuator with actuation parameter

V = 7 for
0
= 0.1:
(a) eect of van der Waals force
3
= 30, (b) eect of Casimir force
4
= 30.
of actuation voltage, the pull-in instability occurs at lower values of initial ampli-
tudes. If the van der Waals attraction is taken into account, by increasing the voltage
parameter

V , the nanoactuator becomes dynamically unstable for any initial condi-
tion at

V = 10.18, as indicated in Fig. 10. On the other hand, as the Casimir eect
is adopted, the nanobridge becomes unstable when the parameter

V approaches
to 9.28.
The eect of nondimensional parameters
2
and which account for the surface
energy on the dynamic pull-in behavior of nonlocal nanobridges are investigated
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Pull-in Behavior of Nonlocal Nanobridges Considering Surface Eect
(a)
(b)
Fig. 10. The phase portrait of nonlocal nanoactuator with actuation parameter for
0
= 0.1: (a)
eect of van der Waals force for

V = 10.18, (b) eect of Casimir force for

V = 9.28.
in Figs. 11 and 12. The obtained results elucidate that the dynamic pull-in voltage
decreases by increasing the nonlocal parameter. In addition, Fig. 11 reveals that the
positive surface stress parameter
2
increases the dynamic pull-in voltage while the
negative one decreases the pull-in voltage. Furthermore, it is concluded from Fig. 12
that the positive , which stands for the surface elasticity, can increase the pull-in
voltage of the nanostructure while the negative one will decrease it. It should be
noted that the surface and bulk material properties have been extracted according
to Fu and Zhang [2011].
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H. M. Sedighi
Fig. 11. Dynamic pull-in voltage versus nonlocal parameter
0
and the parameter
2
for A = 0.4,

1
= 0.12 10
5
,
2
= 0.4.
Fig. 12. Dynamic pull-in voltage versus nonlocal parameter
0
and the parameter for
A = 0.4,
1
= 0.12 10
5
,
2
= 0.4.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, the inuence of dispersion forces as well as surface energy param-
eters on the dynamic pull-in behavior of nonlocal nanobridges was investigated.
The obtained results revealed that the nanostructure diverges to the substrate at
lower values of applied voltage, when the Casimir eect is taken into considera-
tion. It was concluded that the nonlocal parameter can decrease the dynamic pull-
in voltage of nanostructures. The positive values of surface parameters increase
the dynamic pull-in voltage while the negative values of these parameters will
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Pull-in Behavior of Nonlocal Nanobridges Considering Surface Eect
decrease it. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis of the system motion exhibits that
the equilibrium points of the nanobeam system include center points and unstable
saddle nodes.
Appendix A
The coecients of the governing equation are:

i,n
=

i,n

1
_
1
0

d + (1 +
2
)(1
2
0
_
1
0

d)
, i = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,
where for van der Waals attraction:

0,3
= (

V
2
(1 +
es
) +
3
)
_
1
0
d,

1,3
= (1 +
1
)
4

2
_
1
0

d
(

V
2
(2 +
es
) + 3
3
)
_
1
0
(
2

2
0

)d f
i
_
1
0
(

2
0

(4)
)d,

2,3
= (

V
2
(3 +
es
) + 6
3
)
_
1
0
(
3

2
0
(
2
)

)d,

3,3
= (

V
2
(4 +
es
) + 10
3
)
_
1
0
(
4

2
0
(
3
)

)d

__
_
1
0
_

__
1
0

2
d
_

2
0

__
1
0

2
d
__

_
d
__
,

4,3
= (

V
2
(5 +
es
) + 15
3
)
_
1
0
(
5

2
0
(
4
)

)d
and for Casimir attraction:

0,4
= (

V
2
(1 +
es
) +
4
)
_
1
0
d,

1,4
= (1 +
1
)
4

2
_
1
0

d
(

V
2
(2 +
es
) + 4
4
)
_
1
0
(
2

2
0

)d f
i
_
1
0
(

2
0

(4)
)d,

2,4
= (

V
2
(3 +
es
) + 10
4
)
_
1
0
(
3

2
0
(
2
)

)d,
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H. M. Sedighi

3,4
= (

V
2
(4 +
es
) + 20
4
)
_
1
0
(
4

2
0
(
3
)

)d

__
_
1
0
_

__
1
0

2
d
_

2
0

__
1
0

2
d
__

_
d
__
,

4,4
= (

V
2
(5 +
es
) + 35
4
)
_
1
0
(
5

2
0
(
4
)

)d.
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