Thermal Post-Buckling Analysis of Nanoscale Films Based on a Non-Classical Finite Element Approach

Abstract

A size-dependent finite element (FE) formulation including surface free energy effect is developed in this article to study the post-buckling behavior of nanofilms under the action of thermal loads. The Gurtin-Murdoch surface elasticity theory is utilized to consider the surface effects. Moreover, the principle of virtual work is used so as to derive the equilibrium equations. The proposed FE formulation is based on the firstorder shear deformation theory (FSDT). The von Kármán nonlinear relations are also employed to take the geometric nonlinearity into account. After deriving the FE equations, the resulting set of parameterized non-linear equations is solved using the pseudo arc-length continuation algorithm, and bifurcation diagrams of nanofilms are obtained. Selected numerical results are presented for the influences of surface stress on the thermal post-buckling characteristics of nanofilms subject to different types of boundary conditions.