Effect of surface energy on the non-linear postbuckling behavior of nanoplates

•The influence of surface energy on the postbuckling behavior of nanoplates is studied.•The surface elasticity and residual surface stress are considered simultaneously.•The normalized postbuckling load of the plates is size-dependent.•The normalized postbuckling load of the plates can be enhanced significantly.•Neglecting the shear deformation may yield strong error in predicting the postbuckling load.

This paper studies the influence of surface energy (which includes the residual surface stress and surface elasticity) on the postbuckling behavior of nanoplates. The governing equations are derived by using the principle of minimum potential energy. Galerkin’s method is employed to obtain the approximate postbuckling load of the nanoplates. The results show that the influence of surface energy on the postbuckling load of the nanoplates becomes increasingly significant when the thickness of the plate decreases. If the thickness of the nanoplates is larger than 20 nm, the influence of surface energy can be neglected. In addition, for nanoplates whose length to thickness ratio is smaller than 10, neglecting the shear deformation may yield significant error in predicting the postbuckling load. This study may be useful for the stability design of plate-like nanostructures in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) in nanotechnology.