• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-36
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• 2016

In the present study, the nonlinear magneto-electro-mechanical free vibration behavior of rectangular double-bonded sandwich microbeams based on the modified strain gradient theory (MSGT) is investigated. It is noted that the top and bottom sandwich microbeams are considered with boron nitride nanotube reinforced composite face sheets (BNNTRC-SB) with electrical properties and carbon nanotube reinforced composite face sheets (CNTRC-SB) with magnetic fields, respectively, and also the homogenous core is used for both sandwich beams. The connections of every sandwich beam with its surrounding medium and also between them have been carried out by considering Pasternak foundations. To take size effect into account, the MSGT is introduced into the classical Timoshenko beam theory (CT) to develop a size-dependent beam model containing three additional material length scale parameters. For the CNTRC and BNNTRC face sheets of sandwich microbeams, uniform distribution (UD) and functionally graded (FG) distribution patterns of CNTs or BNNTs in four cases FG-X, FG-O, FG-A, and FG-V are employed. It is assumed that the material properties of face sheets for both sandwich beams are varied in the thickness direction and estimated through the extended rule of mixture. On the basis of the Hamilton's principle, the size-dependent nonlinear governing differential equations of motion and associated boundary conditions are derived and then discretized by using generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM). A detailed parametric study is presented to indicate the influences of electric and magnetic fields, slenderness ratio, thickness ratio of both sandwich microbeams, thickness ratio of every sandwich microbeam, dimensionless three material length scale parameters, Winkler spring modulus and various distribution types of face sheets on the first two natural frequencies of double-bonded sandwich microbeams. Furthermore, a comparison between the various beam models on the basis of the CT, modified couple stress theory (MCST), and MSGT is performed. It is illustrated that the thickness ratio of sandwich microbeams plays an important role in the vibrational behavior of the double-bonded sandwich microstructures. Meanwhile, it is concluded that by increasing H/lm, the values of first two natural frequencies tend to decrease for all amounts of the Winkler spring modulus.