Free Vibrations of Flexoelectric FGM Conical Nanoshells with Piezoelectric Layers: Modeling and Analysis

Abstract

Flexoelectric and piezoelectric effects have attracted the attention of researchers, owing to their applications in sensing systems and actuators. In this paper, the vibration of functionally graded material (FGM) conical nanoshell is studied, taking into account both piezoelectricity and flexoelectricity. The nanoshell has a sandwich-type structure with a FGM core and two layers of piezoelectric materials on its top and bottom. With the combination of the first order shear deformation and Eringen’s nonlocal theories, the vibration equation of the nanoshell is developed. In order to study the governing equations and the frequency of vibrations of nanoshell, the generalized differential quadrature method is implemented. Based on the developed numerical solution procedure, the effect of different parameters, such as flexoelectricity, piezoelectricity, nonlocal term and Pasternak foundation, are shown on the vibrations of conical nanoshell. The presented analysis provides a better insight into the behavior of conical nanoshells, which are highly applicable in bio-sensing and optical devices.