N. Taghavi, H. Nahvi, Pull-in Instability of cantilever and fixed-fixed nano-swiches

In this article, pull-in instability of cantilever and fixed-fixed nano-switches subjected to electrostatic forces that produced by an applied voltage, and intermolecular forces are investigated. A linear distributed load model is considered to approximately model the nonlinear intermolecular and electrostatic interactions acting on the nano-beam. The effect of small length-scale is taken into account, using hybrid nonlocal Euler-Bernoulli beam model. The effects of small length-scale on the pull-in instability and freestanding behavior of the cantilever and fixed-fixed nano-beams are presented and compared with the Eringen's nonlocal beam and classical beam models. It is found that Eringen's nonlocal beam model produces unreasonable pull-in voltages, minimum gaps and detachment lengths. It is shown that shortcomings of the Eringen's nonlocal beam theory can be resolved by the use of hybrid nonlocal beam model.