An alternative reduced order model for electrically actuated micro-beams under mechanical shock

•A new solution for electrically actuated micro-beams under mechanical shock is introduced.•The results of this new procedure agree better than previous methods with FE model.•The present approach does not suffer from long run time.•This approach is also able to capture dynamic pull-in instability in every desired loading case.

This study focuses on the effect of mechanical shock on dynamic pull-in instability of eclectically actuated micro-beams through an alternative reduced order model (ROM). The model's predictions for dynamic pull-in voltages are compared with available finite element (FE) results and six modes Galerkin approximations in the literature. It is shown that present results for high shock accelerations agree with FE predictions better than those obtained using six modes approximations. Furthermore, the present model can remove the limitation of previous methods in capturing dynamic pull-in instability for cases under enormous shock accelerations.