Shear Effects in Elastic Nanobeams

Small-scale, shear deformable nanobeams, subjected to quasi-static loads, are analyzed by a nonlocal (integral) elasticity model with the main goal to evaluate the influence of shear deformation on size effects. To this aim a warping parametric model is considered in order to obtain a continuous family of shear deformable beam models which span from the Euler-Bernoulli to the Thimoshenko beam model, passing from the Reddy model. The strain difference based nonlocal elasticity theory is applied under the hypotheses of small displacements and isotropic material. The results, obtained by analysing a cantilever nonlocal nanobeam, indicate that shear deformation has a considerable influence upon size effects.