doi: 10.1098/rspa.2006.

1712
, 2977-2995 462 2006 Proc. R. Soc. A

Mingtian Xu

beams
Free transverse vibrations of nano-to-micron scale

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Free transverse vibrations of nano-to-micron
scale beams
BY MINGTIAN XU*
Forschungszentrum Rossendorf, PO Box 510119, 01314 Dresden, Germany
In the present work, the integral equation approach and the non-local elasticity theory are
employed to investigate the free transverse vibrations of nano-to-micron scale beams. The
frequency equation is analytically formulated into an eigenvalue problem of a matrix with
an innite order. The numerical calculation is implemented by truncating this matrix to a
nite order one. It is found that the impact of the non-local effect on the natural
frequencies and vibrating modes is negligible for the beams with micrometre scale length.
But when the length of beams reaches the nanoscale, the non-local effect becomes
important, especially for the high-order natural frequencies and vibrating modes.
Keywords: nano-to-micron scale beams; non-local elasticity theory;
integral equation method
1. Introduction
The rapidly developing nanotechnology brings us more and more microelec-
tromechanical devices. The dimension of these devices now can reach nanometre
scale. Owing to the requirements in applications, the mechanical properties of
these nanoscale devices have drawn tremendous attention. Two approaches are
available for such investigations: the classical continuum mechanics and the
atomic or molecular models. Both have some drawbacks. There is evidence
that the applicability of classical continuum mechanics to nanoscale devices is
doubted (Broughton et al. 1997; Carr et al. 1999; Rudd & Broughton 1999). The
difference of the natural frequencies predicted by the continuum elasticity theory
and the molecular simulation can reach 1038% for a 17 nm scale plate with the
clamped ends (Rudd & Broughton 1999). Even for a sub-micron length-scale
quartz crystal oscillator, the surface effect and the anharmonicity phenomenon
may occur which is unexplainable by the continuum elasticity theory (Carr et al.
1999). Furthermore, for a sub-micron scale mechanical resonator, it is possible to
observe quantum effects under certain conditions (Blencowe 2004). Atomic or
molecular simulation is becoming a powerful tool to explore the properties of
nanodevices owing to the rapidly growing capacity of the supercomputer and
Beowulf clusters technology. But it is difcult to establish and the computational
cost are also expensive. Therefore, the non-local continuum mechanics (Eringen
1972a,b, 1983, 1992; Eringen et al. 1977), which is the improvement of the
Proc. R. Soc. A (2006) 462, 29772995
doi:10.1098/rspa.2006.1712
Published online 27 April 2006
*[email protected]
Received 1 December 2005
Accepted 6 March 2006 2977 q 2006 The Royal Society
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classical continuum mechanics by counting the impact of the microstructure of
materials, provides us with a new tool to deal with these tiny devices in a trade-
off way (Peddieson et al. 2003).
The beam-like microscale devices are key components in microelectromechanical
systems, such as cantilever actuators, nanotubes, nanowires, the nano-to-micron
scale mechanical resonator in quantum electromechanical system and micro-
cantilever-tip systems in atomic force microscopy. The thorough understanding of
the vibrational behaviour of these structures is of great practical and theoretical
interest. The vibrational property of the carbon nanotube has already been
employed to study its elastic bending modulus (Poncharal et al. 1999). The
vibration analysis of nanowires is required in order to determine the lattice
thermal conductance (Blencowe 2004; Tanaka et al. 2005). The analysis of the
forced vibration of the cantilever-tip system is fundamental to the atomic force
microscopy, which is a powerful and versatile technique for atomic and nano-
scale tomography and manipulations of surfaces, DNA, proteins and polymers
(Garcia & Perez 2002; Ward 2005). Usually, the classical Bernoulli/Euler beam
model is employed to describe the vibration of these nano-to-micron scale beam
structures (Treacy et al. 1996; Poncharal et al. 1999; Kahn et al. 2001; Yong et al.
2002; Xia et al. 2004; Tanaka et al. 2005). However, the applicability of the
classical continuum models for these systems is called into question (Ruoff et al.
1993; Lu 1997; Hertel et al. 1998; Govindjee & Sackman 1999). Recently, the
non-local elasticity theory has been developed to investigate the bending of
nano-to-micron scale beams under static loads (Peddieson et al. 2003) and the free
transverse vibrations of carbon nanotubes (Zhang et al. 2005). In the present
work, we focus on the free vibration of the general nano-to-micron scale beams
based on the non-local continuum models.
2. Non-local continuum beam model
In classical continuum elasticity, the stress state at a point x is only related to
the strain state at the same point x. This view contradicts the atomic theory of
lattice mechanics and experimental observations of phonon dispersion. In order
to resolve this paradox, non-local continuum mechanics has been put forward by
Eringen et al. (Eringen 1972a,b, 1983, 1992; Eringen et al. 1977). In this theory,
the stress state at a point x is relevant to all the points of the body. For the linear
and isotropic elastic solids, the non-local elasticity theory is mathematically
formulated as follows (Eringen 1992):
s
kl;k
Crf
l
K u
l
Z0; 2:1
s
kl
Z
_
V
ajx
0
Kxjt
kl
dV; 2:2
t
kl
Zlu
n;n
d
kl
Cmu
k;l
Cu
l;k
; 2:3
where s
kl
, t
kl
, r, f
l
and u
l
are the non-local stress tensor, the classical stress
tensor, mass density, body force density and the displacement vector at a point x
in the body, respectively. l and m are the Lame constants. V is the volume
occupied by the elastic body. The non-local kernel ajx
0
Kxj reects the impact
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of the strain at the point x
0
on the stress at the point x. Note that the
constitutive equation in the non-local continuum elasticity is expressed by an
integral over the entire elastic body. Actually, it reveals the averaged inuence of
the strain at all the points in the body on the stress at the point x. Compared
with the classical continuum elasticity, the governing equation of the non-local
continuum elasticity is quite complicated. Fortunately, under certain conditions,
it can be simplied by converting the integral constitutive equation in equation
(2.1) to the equivalent differential constitutive equation. For example, in the
non-local elasticity, the uniaxial Hookes law is expressed as (Eringen 1983;
Peddieson et al. 2003; Zhang et al. 2005)
sKe
0
a
2
v
2
s
vx
2
ZE3; 2:4
where s is the axial stress, 3 the axial strain, E the Young modulus, a the internal
characteristic length (length of CC bond, lattice spacing, granular distance), e
0
a constant to be determined for each material and x the axial coordinate.
For the transversely vibrating beam, the equilibrium conditions read
(Bishop & Johnson 1979; Peddieson et al. 2003; Zhang et al. 2005)
S Z
vM
vx
; 2:5
vS
vx
ZKp CrA
v
2
w
vt
2
; 2:6
where S is the shear force, M the bending moment, p the loading per unit length,
r the mass density, A the area of the cross-section of the beam, w the beams
transverse displacement and t the time variable. Combining equations (2.5) and
(2.6) yields
v
2
M
vx
2
ZKp CrA
v
2
w
vt
2
: 2:7
Multiplying by y on both sides of equation (2.4) and integrating over the cross-
section of the beam at the point x, we obtain
_
A
sy dAKe
0
a
2
_
A
y
v
2
s
vx
2
dAZ
_
A
Ey3 dA: 2:8
According to the denition of the bending moment, we have
M Z
_
A
ys dA: 2:9
The small deection Bernoulli/Euler relation between strain and curvature is
3 ZKy
v
2
w
vx
2
: 2:10
For the uniform beam, substituting equations (2.9) and (2.10) into equation (2.8)
yields
MKe
0
a
2
v
2
M
vx
2
ZKEI
v
2
w
vx
2
; 2:11
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where I is the area moment of inertia. Differentiating both sides of this equation
with respect to the variable x twice gives
v
2
M
vx
2
Ke
0
a
2
v
4
M
vx
4
ZK
v
2
vx
2
EI
v
2
w
vx
2
_ _
: 2:12
Substituting equation (2.7) into the above equation yields
p ZEI
v
4
w
vx
4
CrA
v
2
w
vt
2
Ke
0
a
2
rA
v
4
w
vx
2
vt
2
K
v
2
p
vx
2
_ _
: 2:13
This is the governing equation of beams based on the non-local continuum
elasticity (Zhang et al. 2005). In addition, wx; t should satisfy appropriate
boundary conditions.
In the following, four kinds of boundary conditions are considered.
For the simply supported beam, its boundary condition is written as
w0; t ZM0; t Z0:0; wL; t ZML; t Z0:0: 2:14
For the clampedclamped beam,
w0; t Zw
0
0; t Z0:0; wL; t Zw
0
L; t Z0:0: 2:15
For the clampedhinged beam,
w0; t Zw
0
0; t Z0:0; wL; t ZML; t Z0:0: 2:16
For the cantilever beam,
w0; t Zw
0
0; t Z0:0; ML; t ZSL; t Z0:0: 2:17
Substituting equation (2.7) into equation (2.11) with the assumption pZ0:0
yields
Mx; t ZKEI
v
2
w
vx
2
Ce
0
a
2
rA
v
2
w
vt
2
: 2:18
An application of equation (2.5) gives
Sx; t ZKEI
v
3
w
vx
3
Ce
0
a
2
rA
v
3
w
vt
2
vx
: 2:19
Note that by setting aZ0 in equation (2.13), we obtain the classical
Bernoulli/Euler beam equation. Setting x
0
Zx=L (L is the length of the beam)
in equation (2.13) and still denoting x
0
as x, gives
p Z
EI
L
4
v
4
w
vx
4
CrA
v
2
w
vt
2
K
e
0
a
L
_ _
2
rA
v
4
w
vx
2
vt
2
K
v
2
p
vx
2
_ _
: 2:20
Since in the following we only address the free vibration of the beam, p can be set
to zero and wx; t be written as
wx; t Zwxe
iut
; 2:21
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where iZ

K1
p
and u is the natural frequency. Therefore, equation (2.20)
becomes
v
4
wx
vx
4
Kl wxKm
v
2
wx
vx
2
_ _
Z0; 2:22
where mZe
0
a
2
=L
2
and lZrAL
4
u
2
=EI . Equations (2.18) and (2.19) arrive at
Mx Z
EI
L
2
Kw
00
xKlmwx; 2:23
Sx Z
EI
L
3
Kw
000
xKlmw
0
x; 2:24
where the prime symbol represents the derivative with respect to the variable x.
Subsequently, equations (2.14)(2.17) become:
for the simply supported beam,
w0 Zw
00
0 Clmw0 Z0:0; w1 Zw
00
1 Clmw1 Z0:0; 2:25
for the clampedclamped beam,
w0 Zw
0
0 Z0:0; w1 Zw
0
1 Z0:0; 2:26
for the clampedhinged beam,
w0 Zw
0
0 Z0:0; w1 Zw
00
1 Clmw1 Z0:0; 2:27
for the cantilever beam,
w0 Zw
0
0 Z0:0; w
00
1 Clmw1 Zw
000
1 Clmw
0
1 Z0:0: 2:28
Obviously, these boundary conditions can be reduced to:
for the simply supported beam,
w0 Zw
00
0 Z0:0; w1 Zw
00
1 Z0:0; 2:29
for the clampedclamped beam,
w0 Zw
0
0 Z0:0; w1 Zw
0
1 Z0:0; 2:30
for the clampedhinged beam,
w0 Zw
0
0 Z0:0; w1 Zw
00
1 Z0:0; 2:31
for the cantilever beam,
w0 Zw
0
0 Z0:0; w
00
1 Clmw1 Zw
000
1 Clmw
0
1 Z0:0: 2:32
Therefore, when the non-local effect is counted, only the boundary condition of
the cantilever beam has been changed; the others considered in the present work
are the same as that for the classical Bernoulli/Euler beam theory.
2981 Nano-to-micron scale beam vibration
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3. Free vibration of nano-to-micron beams
In this section, the natural frequencies and vibrating modes of the nano-
to-micron beams are investigated by the integral equation approach (Xu &
Cheng 1994; Xu et al. 1998). By applying this approach, the free transverse
vibration of beams can be analytically formulated to a linear eigenvalue
problem of a matrix with an innite order, which can be solved numerically by
truncating this matrix to a nite order. Surprisingly, the truncated second-
order matrix already gives us a satisfactory result. Therefore, an approximate
formula of the fundamental frequency can be obtained. In the following, this
method will be exemplied by the cantilever beam.
In order to convert equation (2.22) with the boundary condition (2.32) into an
equivalent integral equation form, we rst consider the following auxiliary
differential equation
v
4
Gx; x
0

vx
4
ZdxKx
0
; 3:1
G0; x
0
ZG
0
0; x
0
Z0; G
00
1; x
0
ZG
000
1; x
0
Z0; 3:2
where dx is Dirac d-function. Note that Gx; x
0
is nothing but the Green
function of the cantilever beam with EI Z1:0. By equation (A 6) in appendix A
and the boundary condition (3.2), Gx; x
0
can be written as
Gx; x
0
Z
G
0
2
C

N
nZ1
G
n
cos npxK
G
000
0
24
4x
2
K4x
3
Cx
4
C
G
0
1
2
x
2
; 3:3
where G
000
0
is the third-order derivative of G at the end xZ0, G
0
1
is the rotation
angle at the end xZ1. Substituting the cosine series of d-function,
dxKx
0
Z1 C

N
nZ1
2 cos npx
0
cos npx;
and equation (3.3) into equation (3.1), yields
G
n
Z
2
n
4
p
4
cos npx
0
; G
000
0
ZK1: 3:4
The application of the boundary condition G0; x
0
ZG
00
1; x
0
Z0 gives
G
0
ZK4

N
nZ1
1
n
4
p
4
cos npx
0
; G
0
1
Z
1
6
C

N
nZ1
2K1
n
n
2
p
2
cos npx
0
: 3:5
Substituting equation (3.5) into equation (3.3) yields
Gx; x
0
ZK

N
nZ1
2
n
4
p
4
cos npx
0
C

N
nZ1
2
n
4
p
4
cos npx
0
cos npx
C
1
24
4x
2
K4x
3
Cx
4
C
1
12
C

N
nZ1
K1
n
n
2
p
2
cos npx
0
_ _
x
2
:
3:6
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By the superposition principle, equation (2.22) with the boundary condition
(2.32) can be transformed into the following integral equation
wx Zl
_
1
0
Gx; x
0
wx
0
Kmw
00
x
0
Cmw1d
0
x
0
K1Kmw
0
1dx
0
K1dx
0
:
3:7
The proof of this statement is given in appendix B. Substituting equation (3.6)
into the above equation and denoting
w
0
Z
_
1
0
wx
0
Kmw
00
x
0
Cmw1d
0
x
0
K1Kmw
0
1dx
0
K1dx
0
; 3:8
w
n
Z
_
1
0
cos npx
0
wx
0
Kmw
00
x
0
Cmw1d
0
x
0
K1
Kmw
0
1dx
0
K1dx
0
n Z1; 2; .; 3:9
we have
wx Zl
1
4
x
2
K
1
6
x
3
C
1
24
x
4
_ _
w
0
Cl

N
nZ1
K1
n
x
2
n
2
p
2
K
2
n
4
p
4
C
2
n
4
p
4
cos npx
_ _
w
n
:
3:10
Differentiating both sides of this equation gives
w
0
x Zl
1
2
xK
1
2
x
2
C
1
6
x
3
_ _
w
0
C

N
nZ1
2K1
n
x
n
2
p
2
K
2
n
3
p
3
sin npx
_ _
w
n
_ _
; 3:11
w
00
x Zl
1
2
Kx C
1
2
x
2
_ _
w
0
C

N
nZ1
2K1
n
n
2
p
2
K
2 cos npx
n
2
p
2
_ _
w
n
_ _
: 3:12
Putting equations (3.10) and (3.12) into equations (3.8) and (3.9) and applying
the following property of the Delta function
_
1
0
f xd
0
xKx
0
dx ZKf
0
x
0
; 3:13
_
1
0
f xdxKx
0
dx Zf x
0
; 3:14
where x
0
20; 1, we obtain
1
l
w
0
Z
1
20
K
m
3
_ _
w
0
C

N
nZ1
K
2
n
4
p
4
C
K1
n
3n
2
p
2
K
4mK1
n
n
2
p
2
_ _
w
n
; 3:15
1
l
w
n
Z K
m
n
2
p
2
K
1
n
4
p
4
C
K1
n
6n
2
p
2
K
K1
n
m
6
_ _
w
0
C
1
n
4
p
4
C
m
n
2
p
2
_ _
w
n
C

N
mZ1
2K1
m
K1
n
m
2
n
2
p
4
K
2mK1
n
K1
m
m
2
p
2
_ _
w
m
n Z1; 2; .: 3:16
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These equations can be expressed as an eigenvalue problem of a matrix,
Bw Z
1
l
w; 3:17
with
B
1;1
Z
1
20
K
m
3
;
B
1;kC1
ZK
2
k
4
p
4
K
4mK1
k
k
2
p
2
C
K1
k
3k
2
p
2
;
B
nC1;1
ZK
1
n
4
p
4
K
m
n
2
p
2
K
mK1
n
6
C
K1
n
6n
2
p
2
;
B
nC1;kC1
Z
2K1
k
K1
n
k
2
n
2
p
4
K
2mK1
n
K1
k
k
2
p
2
C
1
n
4
p
4
C
m
n
2
p
2
_ _
dkKn n; k Z1; 2; 3; .;
w Zw
1
; w
2
; .
T
:
Similarly, using the sine Fourier series expansion (A 5) in appendix A, the
frequency equations of other kinds of beams with different boundary conditions
can also be obtained. They have the same form as equation (3.17). But the
elements of the matrix B are different. For the clampedclamped and
clampedhinged beams, the results are listed in the following.
Clampedclamped beam:
B
n;k
Z1 Cmk
2
p
2

4K2KK1
k

n
3
k
3
p
6
C
4K1
nC1
1 C2K1
k

n
3
k
3
p
6
_
C
1
n
4
p
4
dkKn
_
n; k Z1; 2; .:
3:18
Clampedhinged beam:
B
n;k
Z
K61 Cmk
2
p
2

n
3
k
3
p
6
C
1 Cmk
2
p
2
n
4
p
4
dnKk n; k Z1; 2; .: 3:19
For the simply supported beam, the exact natural frequencies and vibrating
modes can be obtained,
u
n
Z
1
L
2

EI
rA

n
2
p
2

1 Cmn
2
p
2
_ ;
X
n
Zsin npx n Z1; 2; .;
_

_
3:20
where X
n
is the nth vibrating mode. For other beams, we have to truncate the
matrix B into a nite-order matrix in order to implement the numerical
calculation. Then, the QR method is employed to solve this eigenvalue problem.
M. Xu 2984
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By the obtained eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, we can get the natural
frequencies and the vibrating modes. From table 1 one can see that a good
convergence of this integral equation method has been achieved for the classical
Bernoulli/Euler beam. Actually, the truncated second-order matrix B
2!2
already
gives us a satisfactory result. Therefore, an approximate formula for the
fundamental frequency of these beams can be obtained,
u
1
z
1
L
2

EI
rA

2
B1; 1 CB2; 2 CC

; 3:21
where CZ

B1; 1CB2; 2
2
K4B1; 1B2; 2KB1; 2B2; 1
_
:
4. Results
By the method described earlier, one can investigate the inuence of the non-
local effect on the frequencies and vibrating modes of the nano-to-micron
cantilever beam, simple supported beam, clampedclamped beam and the
clampedhinged beam. Concerning the importance of the low-order modes, we
only present the rst three natural frequencies and the rst two vibrating modes
in this paper. In order to do the calculation, we have to determine which value of
e
0
should be used. In Zhang et al. (2005), by the molecular simulation result of
carbon nanotubes, it has been found that e
0
approximately equals 0.82. Such a
value of e
0
is assumed in the following calculations. The impact of e
0
on the
natural frequencies of the simply supported beam and the cantilever beam with a
length LZ60a is displayed in table 2. For other kinds of beams considered in this
paper, the variation of the natural frequencies with respect to e
0
is quite similar
to the simply supported beam case.
Tables 36 show the impact of the non-local effect on the natural frequencies of
beams with different lengths. Such an impact is quantied as
uKu
l

u
; 4:1
where u is the frequency of the classical beam, while u
l
is the frequency with the
non-local effect. It increases the fundamental and second frequencies of the
cantilever beam, but decreases the natural frequencies for all other cases. In Carr
et al. (1999), the vibration of a 2 mm long, 200 nm thick and 100 nm wide
clampedclamped beam was investigated experimentally. A fundamental
Table 1. The convergence of the fundamental frequency for the integral equation approach.
the order of matrix B clampedfree clampedclamped clampedhinged
2!2 3.5360 22.6764 15.4453
3!3 3.5217 22.3875 15.4235
4!4 3.5180 22.3875 15.4198
5!5 3.5170 22.3754 15.4188
exact value 3.5160 22.3733 15.4182
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frequency of 380 MHz has been measured. Based on the classic Bernoulli/Euler
beam, the fundamental frequency is 412 MHz. By taking into account the non-
local effect, our calculated results in table 4 show that the fundamental frequency
of the clampedclamped beam should be slightly less than 412 MHz; therefore, it
is little more accurate compared to the experimental result. In Rudd &
Broughton (1999), it was found that the fundamental frequency obtained by
Table 2. The inuence of the parameter e
0
on the natural frequencies of the simply supported beam
and cantilever beam with the length LZ60a, which is expressed by equation (4.1).
nth frequency e
0
Z0:1 e
0
Z0:3 e
0
Z0:6 e
0
Z0:9
simply supported beam
1 1.3708!10
K5
1.2335!10
K4
4.9312!10
K4
1.1085!10
K3
2 5.4827!10
K5
4.9312!10
K4
1.9681!10
K3
4.4120!10
K3
3 1.2335!10
K4
1.1085!10
K3
4.4120!10
K3
9.8456!10
K3
cantilever beam
1 K8.8287!10
K6
K7.9465!10
K5
K2.1796!10
K4
K7.1576!10
K4
2 K7.9670!10
K6
K7.1681!10
K5
K2.8644!10
K4
K6.4339!10
K4
3 2.0498!10
K5
1.8451!10
K4
7.3838!10
K4
1.6627!10
K3
Table 3. The inuence of the non-local effect on the natural frequencies of the simply supported
beam, which is expressed by equation (4.1).
nth frequency L/aZ100 80 60 40 20
1 3.3165!10
K4
5.1806!10
K4
9.2044!10
K4
2.0674!10
K3
8.1936!10
K3
2 1.3246!10
K3
2.0674!10
K3
3.6666!10
K3
8.1936!10
K3
3.1616!10
K2
3 2.9730!10
K3
4.6338!10
K3
8.1936!10
K3
1.8158!10
K2
6.7218!10
K2
Table 4. The inuence of the non-local effect on the natural frequencies of the clampedclamped
supported beam, which is expressed by equation (4.1).
nth frequency L/aZ100 80 60 40 20
1 4.1336!10
K4
6.4566!10
K4
1.1470!10
K3
2.5754!10
K3
1.0188!10
K2
2 1.5447!10
K3
2.4105!10
K3
4.2736!10
K3
9.5411!10
K3
3.6638!10
K2
3 3.3087!10
K3
5.1556!10
K3
9.1112!10
K3
2.0160!10
K2
7.4065!10
K2
Table 5. The inuence of the non-local effect on the natural frequencies of the clampedhinged
supported beam, which is expressed by equation (4.1).
nth frequency L/aZ100 80 60 40 20
1 3.8683!10
K4
6.0423!10
K4
1.0735!10
K3
2.4105!10
K3
9.5413!10
K3
2 1.4391!10
K3
2.2458!10
K3
3.9822!10
K3
8.8940!10
K3
3.4221!10
K2
3 3.1466!10
K3
4.9036!10
K3
8.6681!10
K3
1.9193!10
K2
7.0760!10
K2
M. Xu 2986
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molecular simulation is always lesser than that obtained by the classical
continuum elasticity theory for a 17 nm long plate with clamped ends. This
tendency is also consistent with our nding for the clampedclamped beam. In
future work, we will apply our method to investigate the vibration of carbon
nanotubes and compare with the experimental or molecular simulation results.
For the simply supported beam, equation (3.20) indicates that the non-local
effect has no inuence on the vibrating modes. For other kinds of beams, the
impact of the non-local effect on the vibrating modes is displayed in gures 16.
In order to clearly illustrate such an impact: when plotting these gures, we
rst discretize the interval 0; 1 into 100 subintervals, by the points
x
i
Zi !0:01 iZ0; 1; 2; .; 100. Then, the inuence of the non-local effect on
the vibrating modes at the point x
i
is quantied as
w
l
x
i
Kwx
i
=

iZ100
iZ0
w
l
x
i

2
=101

_
; 4:2
where wx
i
and w
l
x
i
are the transverse displacements of one mode at the point
x
i
without and with the non-local effect, respectively. From these gures, one can
see that the higher the order of vibrating modes, the greater the impact of the
non-local effects. But when the length of the nano-to-micron beam is in the
micrometre scale, the non-local effect has slight impact on both the natural
frequencies and the vibrating modes.
5. Concluding remarks
The integral equation approach is employed to examine the inuence of the non-
local effect on the transverse vibrations of the nano-to-micron beams. It is found
that for the beams with the micrometre scale length, the classical Bernoulli/
Euler beam theory is applicable; but for the beams with nanometre scale length,
the inuence of the non-local effect becomes larger, especially for the high-order
frequencies and vibrating modes. Interestingly, for the cantilever beam, it
demonstrates a quite different behaviour for its rst and second modes.
In the present work, although the non-local effect has been taken into account, it
is still a quite simple model of the nano-to-micronbeam. Many important factors for
the nano-micron-scale beams have not been addressed, for example, the size-
dependence of the elastic properties (Miller &Shenoy2000), the energylosses due to
the surface-related effects (Carr et al. 1999), the temperature dependency and
quantum effects (Blencowe 2004), etc. These will be left for future work.
Table 6. The inuence of the non-local effect on the natural frequencies of the cantilever beam,
which is expressed by equation (4.1).
nth frequency L/aZ100 80 60 40 20
1 K2.1377!10
K4
K3.3406!10
K4
K5.9408!10
K4
K1.3379!10
K3
K5.3786!10
K3
2 K1.9268!10
K4
K3.0092!10
K4
K5.3437!10
K4
K1.1985!10
K3
K4.7046!10
K3
3 4.9638!10
K4
7.7578!10
K4
1.3799!10
K3
3.1098!10
K3
1.2585!10
K3
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0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.10
v
i
b
r
a
t
i
n
g

m
o
d
e
s
0.25 0.50 0.75 1.0
x
Figure 2. The inuence of the non-local effect on the second mode of the cantilever beam, which is
expressed by equation (4.2). The solid, dashed, dash-dot and dash-dot-dot lines are for beams with
the length LZ80a, 60a, 40a and 20a, respectively.
0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.0
x
0.0050
0.0045
0.0040
0.0035
0.0030
0.0025
0.0020
0.0015
0.0010
0.0005
0
v
i
b
r
a
t
i
n
g

m
o
d
e
s
Figure 1. The inuence of the non-local effect on the rst mode of the cantilever beam, which is
expressed by equation (4.2). The solid, dashed, dash-dot and dash-dot-dot lines are for beams with
length LZ80a, 60a, 40a and 20a, respectively.
M. Xu 2988
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0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.0
x
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
0.0002
0.0004
0.0006
v
i
b
r
a
t
i
n
g

m
o
d
e
s
Figure 3. The inuence of the non-local effect on the rst mode of the clampedclamped beam,
which is expressed by equation (4.2). The solid, dashed, dash-dot and dash-dot-dot lines are for
beams with the length LZ80a, 60a, 40a and 20a, respectively.
0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.0
x
0.005
0.004
0.003
0.002
0.001
0
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
v
i
b
r
a
t
i
n
g

m
o
d
e
s
Figure 4. The inuence of the non-local effect on the second mode of the clampedclamped beam,
which is expressed by equation (4.2). The solid, dashed, dash-dot and dash-dot-dot lines are for
beams with the length LZ80a, 60a, 40a and 20a, respectively.
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0.0012
0.0010
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
0.0002
0.0004
0.0006
0.0008
v
i
b
r
a
t
i
n
g

m
o
d
e
s
0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.0
x
Figure 5. The inuence of the non-local effect on the rst mode of the clampedhinged beam, which
is expressed by equation (4.2). The solid, dashed, dash-dot and dash-dot-dot lines are for beams
with the length LZ80a, 60a, 40a and 20a, respectively.
0.004
0.002
0
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.010
0.012
0.014
0.016
v
i
b
r
a
t
i
n
g

m
o
d
e
s
0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.0
x
Figure 6. The inuence of the non-local effect on the second mode of the clampedhinged beam,
which is expressed by equation (4.2). The solid, dashed, dash-dot and dash-dot-dot lines are for
beams with the length LZ80a, 60a, 40a and 20a, respectively.
M. Xu 2990
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I am indebted to the referees for their invaluable suggestions.
Appendix A
In this section, a strategy for improving the convergency of the Fourier series
expansion method is discussed. We begin with the following two theorems.
Theorem A 1. Assume f x to be a continuous function in 0; L, have
absolutely integrable derivative (with exception at the nite number points) and
satisfy f 0Zf LZ0, then the sine series of f x can be differentiated twice
(Yan 1989).
Theorem A 2. Assume f x to be a continuous function in 0; L, have
absolutely integrable derivative (with exception at the nite number points) and
satisfy f
0
0Zf
0
LZ0 (f
0
is the derivative of f x), then the cosine series of f x
can be differentiated twice (Yan 1989).
When we deal with the deection function wx of the bending beam, some
boundary conditions may not satisfy the conditions w0ZwLZ0 for the sine
series expansion or w
0
0Zw
0
LZ0 for cosine series expansion. Therefore, we
cannot obtain the derivative of wx by directly differentiating its sine or cosine
series. In order to surmount this difculty, for the sine series expansion, wx is
rst written into
wx Zw
1
x Cw
2
x; A 1
where w
1
x satises the following boundary conditions:
w
1
0 Zw
1
L Z0; w
00
1
0 Zw
00
1
L Z0: A 2
From theorem A 1, the sine series of w
1
x can be differentiated twice without
question. As for w
2
x, it should satisfy
w
2
0 Zw0; w
2
L ZwL; w
00
2
0 Zw
00
0; w
00
2
L Zw
00
L: A 3
The simplest choice of w
2
x is the cubic polynomial ax
3
Cbx
2
CcxCd. By the
conditions (A 3), this polynomial is written as
w
2
x ZK
w
00
0L
2
6
2x
L
K3
x
2
L
2
C
x
3
L
3
_ _
K
w
00
LL
2
6
x
L
K
x
3
L
3
_ _
Cw0 1K
x
L
_ _
CwL
x
L
: A 4
Therefore, wx can be expressed as
wx Z

N
nZ1
w
n
sin
npx
L
Kw
00
0
L
2
6
2x
L
K3
x
2
L
2
C
x
3
L
3
_ _
K
w
00
LL
2
6
x
L
K
x
3
L
3
_ _
Cw0 1K
x
L
_ _
CwL
x
L
: A 5
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If we want to expand w
2
x into cosine series, similar derivation as the above
yields
w Z
w
0
2
C

N
nZ1
w
n
cos
npx
L
K
w
000
0L
3
24
4
x
2
L
2
K4
x
3
L
3
C
x
4
L
4
_ _
K
w
000
LL
3
24
2
x
2
L
2
K
x
4
L
4
_ _
C
w
0
0L
2
2x
L
K
x
2
L
2
_ _
C
w
0
LL
2
x
2
L
2
: A 6
Finally, we would like to say that similar results have been given by Li (2000).
Appendix B
In this section, we attempt to prove equation (3.7). Firstly, equation
(2.22) with the boundary condition (2.32) can be viewed as the governing
equation of a Bernoulli/Euler beam subject to the loading per unit length
lwxKmd
2
wx=dx
2
, the concentrated bending moment Klmw1 and shear
force Klmw
0
1 at the end xZ1. Therefore, its solution can be decomposed into
the sum of the solutions of the following three differential equations:
d
4
w
1
x
dx
4
Zl wxKm
d
2
wx
dx
2
_ _
;
w
1
0 Zw
0
1
0 Z0; w
00
1
1 Z0:0; w
000
1
1 Z0:0;
_

_
B 1
d
4
w
2
x
dx
4
Z0:0;
w
2
0 Zw
0
2
0; w
00
2
1 ZKlmw1; w
000
2
1 Z0:0;
_

_
B 2
d
4
w
3
x
dx
4
Z0:0;
w
3
0 Zw
0
3
0 Z0; w
00
3
1 Z0:0; w
000
3
1 ZKlmw
0
1:
_

_
B 3
By the denition of the Green function Gx; x
0
given by equations (3.1) and
(3.2) and the superposition principle, the solutions of these equations can be
expressed as
w
1
x Zl
_
1
0
Gx; x
0
wx
0
Kmw
00
x
0
dx
0
; B 4
w
2
x Zlm
_
1
0
Gx; x
0
w1d
0
x
0
K1dx
0
; B 5
w
3
x ZKlm
_
1
0
Gx; x
0
w
0
1dx
0
K1dx
0
: B 6
In order to prove these statements, taking the fourth derivative, the second
derivative and the third derivative with respect to the variable x on both sides of
M. Xu 2992
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equations (B 4)(B 6), respectively, yields
w
0000
1
x Zl
_
1
0
d
4
G
dx
4
wx
0
Kmw
00
x
0
dx
0
; B 7
w
00
2
x Zlm
_
1
0
d
2
G
dx
2
w1d
0
x
0
K1dx
0
; B 8
w
000
3
x ZKlm
_
1
0
d
3
G
dx
3
w
0
1dx
0
K1dx
0
: B 9
By applying equation (3.1) on equation (B 7), equation (B 4) is followed
immediately. By the relations Gx; x
0
ZGx
0
; x, equations (B 8) and (B 9)
become
w
00
2
x Zlm
_
1
0
d
2
G
dx
2
0
w1d
0
x
0
K1dx
0
; B 10
w
000
3
x ZKlm
_
1
0
d
3
G
dx
3
0
w
0
1dx
0
K1dx
0
: B 11
From equation (3.13), equation (B 10) arrives at
w
00
2
x ZKlm
d
3
G
dx
3
0
w1j
x
0
Z1
: B 12
By equation (3.1), we have
w
00
2
x ZKlmHxKx
0
w1j
x
0
Z1
; B 13
where HxKx
0
is the Heaviside function dened as
HxKx
0
Z
1; xRx
0
;
0; x!x
0
:
_
Therefore, equation (B 12) can be written as
w
00
2
x Z
Klmw1; x Z1;
0; x s1:
_
B 14
Similarly, by equation (3.14), we obtain
w
000
3
x Z
Klmw
0
1; x Z1;
0; x s1:
_
B 15
Therefore, equations (B 4)(B 6) are the solutions of equations (B 1)(B 3),
respectively, and the superposition principle results in equation (3.7).
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