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The modeling and analysis for mechanical response of nano-scale beams undergoing large displacements and rotations are presented. The beam element is modeled as a composite consisting of the bulk material and the surface material layer. Both Eringen nonlocal elasticity theory and Gurtin–Murdoch surface elasticity theory are adopted to formulate the moment–curvature relationship of the beam. In the formulation, the pre-existing residual stress within the bulk material, induced by the residual surface tension in the material layer, is also taken into account. The resulting moment-curvature relationship is then utilized together with Euler–Bernoulli beam theory and the elliptic integral technique to establish a set of exact algebraic equations governing the displacements and rotations at the ends of the beam. The linearized version of those equations is also established and used in the derivation of a closed-form solution of the buckling load of nano-beams under various end conditions. A discretization-free solution procedure based mainly upon Newton iterative scheme and a selected numerical quadrature is developed to solve a system of fully coupled nonlinear equations. It is demonstrated that the proposed technique yields highly accurate results comparable to the benchmark analytical solutions. In addition, the nonlocal and surface energy effects play a significant role on the predicted buckling load, post-buckling and bending responses of the nano-beam. In particular, the presence of those effects remarkably alters the overall stiffness of the beam and predicted solutions exhibit strong size-dependence when the characteristic length of the beam is comparable to the intrinsic length scale of the material surface.

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