Axisymmetric bending of strain gradient elastic circular

thin plates

Introduction
Modern technology focuses its research in smaller volumes and scales
(microscale and nanoscale). In these scales, dramatic changes in stresses and
deformations are observed and also gradient of these fields emerge. These
gradients are connected with the microstructure of these materials and are
determined by the interior and geometrical magnitudes. Materials with intense
microstructure are granular, foamy, polymers, polycrystalline, etc.
The classical theory of elasticity cannot describe scale phenomena (size
effects) which are introduced by microstructure materials, since it does not
include terms of interior magnitude–length (intrinsic length). The technological
progress and emphasis in micro- and nanoconstructions render classical
elasticity theory powerless. This theory cannot, any longer, predict specific
experimentally confirmed phenomena, and the need for its expansion becomes
evident.
Therefore, nonclassical theories appeared, which concentrate the interest of
the researchers for over a century. The basic idea of these theories is that stress
does not only depend on the corresponding deformation. This means that the
axiom of local action does not apply in these cases. Nonclassical theories
consider that the stress depends by the deformation of the neighborhood too.
Expanding the strain in Taylor series around the specific point, the first
approach includes the derivatives of the strain. This is the elasticity theory of
the first
Fig. 1 The representative element with the nonsymmetric stresses and the distributed
moments contributing to the equilibrium of the bending moment gradient.

For theories of higher gradient, the expansion of the deformation energy

includes derivatives of higher order. The partial differential equations derived
by these nonclassical theories lead to the solution of boundary condition
problems with additional boundary conditions, whose solution allows for scale
phenomena.
The first that emphasized the role of the gradient terms was Voigt (1887),
while the first integrated theory of general elasticity was delivered in 1909 by
Cosserat brothers, who introduced gradients in the rotation tensor and in
addition antisymmetric stress tensors. In the 1960s, a plethora of theories
occurred from Toupin , Koiter , Mindlin and Eringen . The most mature of them
all was proved the gradient theory by Mindlin, which includes five additional
constants from these of classical elasticity.
The elastic gradient theory is being applied to many problems of mechanics,
solving problems of concen-trated forces (Lazar and Maugin), problems of
dynamical dislocations (Fleck and Hutchinson ), bending of thin plates and thin
beams (Lazopoulos).
As in , the authors considered not only the gradient strain component along
the axis of the beam but also on the transversal direction. New terms appeared
in the governing equilibrium of the beam that does not depend upon the bending
but on the shear stiffness of the beam. These terms highly influence the bending
behavior of thin strain gradient elastic beams. In fact, the fiber character of the
Bernoulli conventional thin elastic beam breaks down since the couple elasticity
effects combine the nonsymmetric stress tensor, namely the shearing effects,
with the bending moments. These terms do not appear in other articles that
present the gradient behavior of plates (Papargyri-Beskou , Tsiatas ). Just to
understand the essence of the present ideas, let us consider the simple bending
of a beam. It is well known that bending deformation is considered as
deformation of the various fibers axially distributed along the beam (see Fig. 1).
The theory of thin beams and thin plates has found many applications in the
fields of micromechanics and nanomechanics. Thin films, MEMS, NEMS
systems are typical applications of the theory of thin constructions, where scale
phenomena have been observed. Many researches, Park and Gao , Yang et al.,
Papargyri-Beskou and Tsiatas , have correlated the thin beams and shell theory
with Mindlin’s gradient theory .
In the current article, Kirchhoff’s bending theory of plates is under discussion
into the frame of a simplified theory of gradient elasticity, which includes
intrinsic lengths that increase drastically the bending stiffness of the plate. Based
on the minimum potential energy principle, simultaneous balance conditions
and boundary conditions of an axisymmetric microplate are extracted. These
conditions are applied into a circular nanoplate simply supported, and a
clamped. The results are then compared with these of other articles, mainly
Papargyri-Beskou .
In this article, in the second paragraph, the static analysis of a gradient elastic
axisymmetric plate is presented for the cases: (a) The plate is simply supported,
and (b) the plate is clamped. In the third paragraph, the analysis of the natural
frequencies of the microplate is extracted.

Fig. 2 The geometry of the microplate

2 Equations of elastic microplate

Let us consider a thin plate (Fig. 2) described by its middle plane (x , y), its
boundary S and its thickness h. Further, the deflection of the plate w = w(x , y) in
the z-direction and a vertical distributed loading is q = q (x , y). Finally, g is the
intrinsic bulk length of the plate. This length is determined indirectly with the
help of proper experimental equipment.
Following Kirchhoff’s principle for bending the displacement field is
described by:

It is worth mentioned that in the gradient elastic plate theories that have already
been proposed, the contribution of the terms εzi j is ignored. In the present work,
these terms are included as very important especially for very small thickness.
In fact, the plate stiffness increases highly, due to the interaction between
bending and shearing. Due to classical stress–deformation relationships, the
tensors are written as:
3 Deformation of axisymmetric gradient plates
In this paragraph, the nonclassical model of gradient deformation previously
acquired is applied in order that the solutions for the statical deformation in the
case of circular gradient plates are extracted. The solutions subsequently will be
specialized in cases of (a) axisymmetric gradient elastic plate with clamped ends,
and (b) axisymmetric gradient elastic plate with simply supported edges.
It is assumed that the load in the cyclical plate is symmetrically distributed
around the vertical axis which goes through the center of the plate. Therefore, the
deformation of the middle area of the plate will again be axisymmetric.
Based on the later condition, for the plate, deformation applies w = w (r ), where
r the radius. The balance equation can be written as:
From Eqs. (10)–(12), the bending hypermoment Mnn , the bending moment Mn
and normal force Qn can be written as functions of r as follows:

where c1, c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, are the constants under determination by the boundary
conditions of the gradient elastic plate. For circular plate without hole in the
center, the deformation, the bending moment and bending hypermoment have to
be finite; therefore, c3 = c4 = c6 = 0.
 Finally, the general solution has the following form:

3.1 Axisymmetric plate with clamped ends

For the first application, we consider a circular plate with clamped boundary. In this case at r =
R, the corresponding boundary conditions are:
that agrees with the solutions of the classical texts for classical elasticity
(Timoshenko et al. [ 17]). Lets consider an axisymmetric microplate made of ABS
plastic, a material quite popular in designing MEMS, with radius R = 0.005 m;
Poisson ratio v = 0.30, Young modulus E = 1.44 GPa, q = 250 N/m2 and h = 0.0005
m. Applying (24) and calculating c1, c2, c5 from (28), we have the following
results:
In Figs. 3, 4 and 5, we can see the displacement w(r ) due to the radius of the
plate r. In these figures, the line where g = 0 is the line that occurs from classical
description of the phenomenon. It is obvious that when g (the intrinsic length)
increases, the gradient description of the phenomenon gives a stiffer solution
(Figs. 3, 4, 5): The larger the g, the stiffer the response of the plate. It is also
obvious that the present article introduces terms that make the plate even stiffer.
Compared to already existing theories (Papargyri-Beskos [ 11], Tsiatas [ 12]), the
existence of the newly introduced terms εzi j and μzi j shows a much stiffer response.
The big differences between the gradient theories are due to the existence of these
newly introduced terms. This does not imply that conventional gradient theories
are wrong; they are just incomplete. Especially for thin plates, the differences are
quite large and significant.
 w(r)-r diagram(Clamped end)
0,00000016

0,00000014

0,00000012

0,0000001
g=0 Classical theory
w(r)
0,00000008 g=0.2 h (Conventional gradient theory)
g=0.2h (Present gradient theory)
0,00000006

0,00000004

0,00000002

0
-0,006 -0,004 -0,002 0 0,002 0,004 0,006
r

Fig. 3 The plate displacement w(r ) versus radius r of the plate for clamped plate (g = 0.2 h)
w(r)-r diagram(Clamped end)
0,00000016

0,00000014

0,00000012

0,0000001 g=0 Classical theory

w(r)
0,00000008 g=0.5 h (Conventional gradient theory)

0,00000006 g=0.5h (Present gradient theory)

0,00000004

0,00000002

0
-0,006 -0,004 -0,002 0 0,002 0,004 0,006
r

Fig. 4 The plate displacement w(r ) versus radius r of the plate for clamped plate (g = 0.5 h)

3.2 Circular plate with simply supported ends

For the second application, we consider a circular plate with simply supported
ends. Here on the boundary r = R, the boundary conditions are as follows:
Axisymmetric bending of strain gradient elastic
circular thin plates

w(r)-r diagram(Clamped end)

0,00000016

0,00000014

0,00000012

0,0000001
g=0 Classical theory
w(r) 0,00000008 g=h (Conventional gradient theory)
g=h (Present gradient theory)
0,00000006

0,00000004

0,00000002

0
-0,006 -0,004 -0,002 0 0,002 0,004 0,006
r

Fig. 5 The plate displacement w(r ) versus radius r of the plate for clamped plate (g = h)
w(r)-r diagram(Simply supported end)
0,0000007

0,0000006

0,0000005

0,0000004 g=0 (Classical theory)

w(r) g=0.2h(Conventional gradient theory)
0,0000003 g=0.2h(Present gradient theory)

0,0000002

0,0000001

0
-0,006 -0,004 -0,002 0 0,002 0,004 0,006
r
Fig. 6 The plate displacement w(r ) versus radius r of the plate for simply supported
ends (g = 0.2 h)
 w(r)-r diagram(Simply supported end)
0,0000007

0,0000006

0,0000005

0,0000004 g=0(Classical theory)

w(r) g=0.5h(Conventional gradient theory)
0,0000003 g=0.5h(Present gradient theory)

0,0000002

0,0000001

0
-0,006 -0,004 -0,002 0 0,002 0,004 0,006
r
Fig. 7 The plate displacement w(r ) versus radius r of the plate for simply
supported ends (g = 0.5 h)
w(r)-r diagram(Simply supported ends)
0,0000007

0,0000006

0,0000005

0,0000004 g=0(Classical theory)

w(r) g=h(Conventional gradient theory)
0,0000003 g=h(Present gradient theory)

0,0000002

0,0000001

0
-0,006 -0,004 -0,002 0 0,002 0,004 0,006
r

Fig. 8 The plate displacement w(r ) versus radius r of the plate for simply supported ends (g = h)
that conforms with the classical solution (Timoshenko et al. [ 17]). Lets consider
an axisymmetric microplate with again the same material as in 3.1 with radius R
= 0.005 m, Poisson ratio v = 0.30, Young modulus E = 1.44 GPa, q = 250 N/m2
and h = 0.0005 m. Applying (24) and calculating c1, c2, c5 from (32), we have the
following results:
In Figs. 6, 7 and 8, we can see the displacement w(r) due to the radius of the
plate r for the case of a plate with simply supported ends for various values of g.
In these figures, it is obvious that the behavior of the displacement is identical
with that of Figs. 3, 4 and 5: The larger the g, the stiffer the response of the plate.
It is also obvious that the present article introduces terms that make the plate even
stiffer. Compared to already existing theories (Papargyri-Beskos [ 11], Tsiatas [
12]), the existence of the newly introduced terms εzi j and μzi j shows a much stiffer
response in this case as it showed in the case of clamped plates. As in paragraph
3.1, it is obvious that the differences between the conventional gradient theory
and this new theory are very significant. The problem with conventional gradient
theories is that the terms εzi j and μzi j are not introduced, something that makes them
inaccurate and incomplete especially for small thicknesses.

4 The natural frequencies of axisymmetric gradient plates

In this paragraph, the application of the amended model of gradient deformation
is presented due to the problem of free vibrations of a cyclical plate. No external
force applies to the microplate.
The equilibrium equation is then written [ 18]:
Expressing s2 = α + β2/3, the Eq. (39) becomes a cubic equation due to α

As it was previously shown, for large β, there are one negative value and two
positive values. Thus, we define the quantity s12 as the negative quantity and
quantities s22 and s32 as positive values.
The Eq. ( 38) is satisfied when the solutions of the following equations are
satisfied
and the Eq. (52) becomes Bessel equation, of fractional order, the solution of
which is given in series form. For ξ = s j r , the solution is defined by Bessel
functions of the first and second kinds, Jk (s j r ) and Yk (s j r ). Further for ξ = i s j
r , the solution is given in terms of modified Bessel functions of the first and
second kind,
Ik (s j r ) and Kk (s j r ).
For the special case of axisymmetric plates, the solution is closed in
direction θ ; thus, k = n. The solution R (r ) is obtained as

5 Conclusion
The bending problem of gradient plates is under consideration. Based on the
principle of minimum potential energy and through a variational analysis, the
balance equation and boundary conditions of the microplate emerge. It is stressed
out that in the variational analysis, the terms εzi j are included, terms that do not
exist in the rest theories of gradient plates (e.g., [ 11, 12]). These terms are
considered as very important for small thickness of the plate (when the thickness
is comparable to the intrinsic length of the material) because they increase
drastically the stiffness of the plate.
Finally, the equations obtained are used for the study of the behavior of the
cyclical microplate in different cases. The solutions for static deformation of
cyclical microplate with clamped ends and simply supported cyclical plate are
analytically presented as well as an analysis of free vibrations where the natural
frequencies of the microplate are obtained.
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