Bending analysis of sandwich micro beams on elastic foundation

Sandwich structures are found in many industrial applications due to their high flexural rigidity-to-weight and high strength-to-weight ratios. Sandwich structures, whose usage areas have expanded considerably thanks to the developing technologies, are used especially in the aircraft-space, aviation, construction, biomedical, electrical-electronic technology, and automotive sectors. Considering the usage areas, it is important to determine the mechanical behavior characteristics to make safe designs. As a result of the rapid developments in nanotechnology in recent years, the use of micron and smaller structural elements in various devices such as sensors, actuators, and resonators has increased. As a result of many experimental and theoretical studies on such structures, the existence of a size effect that cannot be interpreted by the conventional theories has been determined. In this thesis, size-dependent bending analysis of micro-sized sandwich beams subjected to point and distributed loads on the elastic foundation is carried out. In the modeling, modified couple stress theory and Bernoulli-Euler beam theory are used. The interaction between micro beam and elastic foundation is considered with Winkler foundation model. The size-dependent governing differential equations are derived by implementing principle of minimum total potential energy. Navier solution method is employed for the solution of simply supported sandwich micro beams. The obtained results are comparatively presented in figures and tables.