Well-posed two-phase nonlocal integral models for free vibration of nanobeams in context with higher-order refined shear deformation theory

In this article, the well-posedness of several common nonlocal models for higher-order refined shear deformation beams is studied. Unlike the case of classic beams models, both strain-driven and stress-driven purely nonlocal theories lead to an ill-posed issue (i.e., there are excessive mandatory boundary conditions) when considering higher-order shear deformation assumption. As an effective remedy, the well-posedness of strain-driven and stress-driven two-phase nonlocal (StrainDTPN and StressDTPN) models is pertinently evidenced by studying the free vibration problem of nanobeams. The governing equations of motion and standard boundary conditions are derived from Hamilton’s principle. The integral constitutive relation is transformed equivalently to a differential form equipped with two constitutive boundary conditions. Using the generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM), the governing equations in terms of displacements are solved numerically. Numerical results show that both the StrainDTPN and StressDTPN models can predict consistent size-effects of beams with different boundary conditions.