Compound influence of surface and flexoelectric effects on static bending response of hybrid composite nanorod

Nanoscale beams and rods are extensively used in several nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) and their applications such as sensors and actuators. The surface and flexoelectricity phenomena have an extensive effect on nanosized structures and are related to their scale-dependent characteristics. This article presents the effect of different surface parameters and flexoelectricity on the electrostatic response of graphene-reinforced hybrid composite (GRHC) nanorods (NRs) using the theory of linear piezoelectricity, Euler-Bernoulli (EB), and Galerkin residual method. Based on these theories, the theoretical and finite element (FE) model is produced to investigate the static bending deflection of GRHC NRs when subjected to point and uniformly distributed load (UDL) considering different boundary conditions: cantilever (FC), fixed-fixed (FF), and simply supported (SS). This proposed FE model provides a useful tool for analyzing and investigating the outcomes of analytical models, which are found to be in good agreement. Our results presented in this article reveal that the effect of surface and flexoelectricity on the static bending response of GRHC NRs is noteworthy. These effects diminish with increased thickness/diameter of NR, and hence, these effects can be neglected for large-sized structures. The results presented here would help to identify the desired electrostatic response of GRHC NRs in terms of static bending response for a range of NEMS using different loading and boundary conditions as well as graphene volume fraction. This current study offers pathways for developing new proficient novel GRHC materials with enhanced control authority and present models can be exploited for numerous other materials as well as line-type structural systems such as beams, wires, rods, column/piers, and piles to study their global response.