Thermo-mechanical vibration, buckling, and bending of orthotropic graphene sheets based on nonlocal two-variable refined plate theory using finite difference method considering surface energy effects

In this article, the influence of temperature change on the vibration, buckling, and bending of orthotropic graphene sheets embedded in elastic media including surface energy and small-scale effects is investigated. To take into account the small-scale and surface energy effects, the nonlocal constitutive relations of Eringen and surface elasticity theory of Gurtin and Murdoch are used, respectively. Using Hamilton’s principle, the governing equations for bulk and surface of orthotropic nanoplate are derived using two-variable refined plate theory. Finite difference method is used to solve governing equations. The obtained results are verified with Navier’s method and validated results reported in the literature. The results demonstrated that for both isotropic and orthotropic material properties, by increasing the temperature changes, the degree of surface effects on the buckling and vibration of nanoplates could enhance at higher temperatures, while it would diminish at lower temperatures. In addition, the effects of surface and temperature changes on the buckling and vibration for isotropic material property are more noticeable than those of orthotropic. On the contrary, these results are totally reverse for bending problem.