Int J Mech Mater Des (2016) 12:3951

DOI 10.1007/s10999-014-9286-6

Investigation of thermoelastic damping in rectangular

microplate resonator using modified couple stress theory
Reza Razavilar Reza Akbari Alashti
Alireza Fathi

Received: 20 July 2014 / Accepted: 24 November 2014 / Published online: 6 December 2014
 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract Thermoelastic damping is a significant

energy lost mechanism at room temperature in microscale resonators. Prediction of thermoelastic damping
(TED) is crucial in the design of high quality MEMS
resonators. In this study the governing equations of
motion and the thermal couple equation of a microplate with an arbitrary rectangular shape are derived
using the modified version of the couple stress theory.
Analytical expressions are presented for calculating
the quality factor (QF) of TED in a rectangular
microplate considering the plane stress and plane
strain conditions. As a case study, a rectangular
microplate resonator is considered with material
property of gold that has a considerably high value
of length-scale parameter in comparison with silicon
and the effect of the length-scale parameter on the QF
of TED is discussed in detail. The relation between QF
and temperature increment for microplates with
clamped boundary conditions based on plane stress
and plane strain models are studied and results
obtained by considering classical and modified couple
stress theory (MCST) are compared. The effect of
R. Razavilar (&)  R. A. Alashti  A. Fathi
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Babol University of
Technology, Shariati Avenue, P.O. Box 484, Babol, Iran
e-mail: reza.razin@yahoo.com
R. A. Alashti
e-mail: raalashti@hotmail.com
A. Fathi
e-mail: fathi@nit.ac.ir

thickness of the plate on the rigidity ratio is studied

and the critical thickness which is an important design
parameter is obtained using the MCST for three
boundary conditions. Variations of TED versus the
plate thickness for various boundary conditions
according to the classical and the modified couple
stress theories are investigated.
Keywords Modified couple stress theory 
Thermoelastic damping  Microplate
List of symbols
bi
Body force
ti
Traction
E
Youngsmodulus
l
Length scale
a
Thermal expansion coefficient
h
Temperature change
v
Poissons ratio
w
Transverse displacement
eij
Components of strain tensor
sij Components of shear stress tensor
l
Lame coefficient
eM
Components of mechanical strain tensor
ij
ci
Body couple
si
Surface couple
eijk Prmutation symbol
mij Deviatoric part of the couple stress
j
Thermal conductivity coefficient
cij Components of shear strain tensor

123

40

rij
vij
eTij
dij
X

R. Razavilar et al.

Components of stress tensor

Symmetric part of the curvature tensor
Components of thermal strain tensor
Kronecker delta
Surface of deformed elastic body

1 Introduction
Micro-scale mechanical resonators are one of the most
commonly and widely used elements in microstructures
and microplates as micro pumps, micro-drives, Infrared
(IR) sensors and micro-scale microphones. These
elements are being extensively utilized as sensors and
actuators in micro-scale due to their high sensitivities as
well as fast responses. For these applications, it is
necessary to design and fabricate resonators with very
high-quality factors and consequently achieve a system
with very little energy dissipation. Hence, it is necessary
to know how the parameters affect their physical and
mechanical behaviors.
Thermoelastic damping (TED) is an important
mechanism of internal damping in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) in vacuum-operated micro-resonators. It is developed from thermal currents generated
due to contraction/expansion of elastic structures. The
bending of plate causes the expansion of the upper and
contraction of the lower surfaces. While one side is
compressed and heated, the other side is stretched and
cooled. Consequently, a transverse temperature gradient
is produced in the presence of finite thermal expansion in
the structure, which generates local heat currents. These
currents increase the value of entropy of the plate that
leads to energy dissipation. In low and high-frequency
regimes, the wave like modes are determined by
isentropic (constant entropy) and isothermal material
parameters, respectively.
Couple stress theory (CST) as a subset of nonclassical theories is capable of applying the size effect
in small-scale structures. A simplified version of the
couple stress theory, known as the modified couple
stress theory (MCST) was first proposed by Yang et al.
(2002) by considering the symmetrical property of the
couple stress tensor. Constitutive equations which are
developed using the MCST have only one material
length-scale parameter to capture the size effect. This
property has attracted some researchers in recent years
to derive formulations for the mechanical analysis of

123

micro-beams and microplates and to investigate their

mechanical behaviors.
Zener (1937, 1938) identified for the first time the
existence of TED as a significant dissipation mechanism in micro resonators and developed an analytic
model for TED in a simple beam. Landau and Lifshitz
(1959) provided an exact expression for the QF of
thermo-elastic vibration. Evoy et al. (2000) and Duwel
et al. (2003) carried out experimental investigation on
TED as a dominant source of damping in MEMS and
NEMS. Lifshitz and Roukes (2000) presented an
analytical expression for the quality factor (QF) of
TED in micro-beams and studied the effect of different
geometrical parameters. Nayfeh and Younis (2004)
derived an analytical expression for the QF of microplates of general shapes and boundary conditions under
the effect of TED. Sharma and Sharma (2011) established the governing equations of thermal couple for
axisymmetric out-of-plane vibration of a circular
microplate and studied the TED in microplates. Ahangar et al. (2011) are investigated the size-dependent
vibrational behavior of a cantilever and clamped
clamped microbeams conveying fluid using the MCST.
Rezazadeh et al. (2012) studied the QF of TED in a
capacitive micro-beam resonator. Saeedivahdat et al.
(2012) studied the effect of axial and residual stresses
on TED in capacitive micro-beam resonators and
investigated TED in a micro-beam resonator tunable
with piezoelectric layers. A review of the literature
reveals that research works carried out on the analysis of
microplates are limited to publications on linear and
nonlinear plate models based on the simplified strain
gradient model with one internal parameter introduced
by Altan and Aifantis (1992). In many applications,
such as resonant sensors and Radio Frequency MEMS
filters, increasing the sensitivity and resolution of
devices is essential. Micro-cantilever beams are widely
used in scientific instruments such as the atomic force
microscope (AFM). The sensitivity and resolution of
these devices can be limited by various dissipation
mechanisms. Yasumura et al. (2000) studied thermomechanical noise effects on the QF for arrays of silicon
nitride, polysilicon and single-crystal silicon cantilevers. They showed the dependence of thermo-mechanical dissipation mechanism on cantilever material,
geometry and surface treatments.
In this paper, at first the length scale parameter is
introduced according to the MCST and its effect on
TED of a rectangular plate is investigated. As case

Investigation of TED

41

studies, three types of boundary conditions for the

rectangular plate with material properties of gold are
considered. The effects of various parameters
including material type on the QF, thickness on
the rigidity ratio and the QF, ambient temperature
on TED are studied and critical thickness analysis is
carried out.

2 Mathematical formulation
It is well known that a temperature change in an
unrestrained elastic solid produces deformation.
Thus, a general strain field results from both
mechanical and thermal effects. Within the context
of the small linear deformation theory, thermoelastic
relations between components of stress and strain
tensors are as follow:
T
eij eM
ij eij

eTij ahdij ;

h T  T0

Fig. 1 Schematic sketch of a rectangular plate and its

coordinate system

sxy

Ez o2 w
1 m oxoy

Hence, the relations between the components of the

strain tensor, stress tensor and the displacement vector
are as follow:

exx

1
o2 w
rxx  mryy ah z 2
E
ox

eyy

1
o2 w
ryy  mrxx ah z 2
E
oy

10

cxy

21 m
o2 w
sxy 2z
E
oxoy

11

eM
ij

1m
m
rij  rkk dij
E
E

eij

1m
m
rij ah  rkk dij
E
E

where h is the temperature increment of resonator and

dij is the Kronecker delta.
Figure 1 presents a schema of the rectangular
microplate and the corresponding coordinate system.
Length, width and thickness of the microplate are
shown to be a, b and h, respectively.

m
ezz  rxx ryy ah
E 

m
o2 w o2 w
1m
ah

1  m oy2 ox2
1m

12

2.2 Model based on plane strain state

2.1 Model based on plane stress condition
Considering the plane stress state, the following
relation is assumed:
rzz rxz ryz exz eyz 0

ezz exz eyz rxz ryz 0

And the stress(r)-transverse displacement(w) relation is obtained as follow:

 2


E
o w
o2 w
rxx 
z
m 2 1 mah
6
1  t2
ox2
oy
 2


E
o w
o2 w
ryy 
z

mah
1  t2
oy2
ox2

The strain and stress components corresponding to the

plane strain state are summarized as follow:

13

exx z

o2 w
ox2

14

eyy z

o2 w
oy2

15

rxx

 2

Ezm
o w o2 w
Ez o2 w


2
2
1 m1  2m ox
oy
1 m ox2
16

123

42

R. Razavilar et al.


ryy

 2


Ezm
o w o2 w
Ez o2 w


1 m1  2m ox2 oy2
1 m oy2

Table 1 Elastic moduli transformation, plane stress state

versus plane strain state

17
 2

Ezm
o w o2 w
rzz

1 m1  2m ox2 oy2

Plane stress to plane strain

18

E
1  m2
E1 2m

m
1m
m
1m

(1 ? m)a

1 m2

It is observed that the basic difference between

plane stress and plane strain formulations is in some
coefficients involving the elastic material constants. It
is easily shown that through transformation of material
properties as specified in Table 1, plane stress relations can be transformed into the corresponding plane
strain relations and vice versa (Sadd 2009).
2.3 Modified couple stress theory
In the MCST, the strain energy density in rectangular
coordinates of a three-dimensional body occupying a
volume V bounded by the surface X is given as:
ZZZ
1
UT
rij eij mij vij dV
19
2
V
1
eij ui;j uj;i
2

Plane strain to plane stress

20

1
Hij eijk uk;j
2

21

1
vij Hi;j Hj;i
2

22

where eij and vij are the strain tensor and the symmetric
part of the curvature tensor, respectively; ui is the
displacement vector, Hij is the rotation vector and eijk
is the permutation symbol. In what follows, unless
otherwise stated, the Greek indices take the values of x
and y while the Latin indices take the values of x, y and
z. Moreover rij and mij are components of the stress
tensor and the deviatoric part of the couple stress
tensor respectively, which are defined as follow:

1 ma
1 2m

consequently the couple stress tensor mij which is

obtained from Eq. (23) is also symmetric. It is
important to note that the antisymmetric part of the
stress tensor is not determined solely by the constitutive relations. Therefore, only the symmetric parts of
the displacement gradient and the rotation gradient
contribute to the deformation energy that is different
from the one defined in the classical couple stress
theory. The work done by external forces on the
deformed elastic body with volume V and surface X is
(Yang et al. 2002; Park and Gao 2008):
Z
Z
W bi ui ci Hi dV ti ui si Hi dX 25
V

Hence, the total potential energy of the deformable

body using Eq. (19) and Eq. (25) is defined as:
P UT  W
Z
Z
1
rij eij mij vij dV  bi ui ci Hi dV
2
V
ZV
26
 ti ui si Hi dX
X

And its first variation is

Z
1
dP dUT  dW
rij deij mij dvij dV
2
VZ
 bi dui ci d Hi dV


V
Z

27

ti dui si d Hi dX

mij 2ll2 vij

23

E
21 m

24

where l is the Lame constant and l is the material

length scale parameter. It can be concluded from
Eq. (22) that the curvature tensor vij is symmetric and

123

The main differences of the MCST with the

standard couple stress theory are that in the MCST,
the couple stress tensor is symmetric and only one
internal material length scale parameter is defined,
however in the standard couple stress theory the
couple stress tensor is asymmetric and number of
internal material length scale parameters are generally

Investigation of TED

43

two. Components of the symmetric part of the

curvature tensor with respect to the basis {e1; e2; e3}
are given in appendix A.

The kinetic energy developed by vibration of the

plate is obtained as:

3 Derivation of governing equations and TED

calculation

1
T
2

Considering MCST and neglecting work done by the

body force bi, body couple ci, traction ti and surface
couple si, the potential energy of Eq. (26) is reduced to:
Z
1
rxx exx ryy eyy rxy exy mxx vxx
UT
2

By introducing lagrangian La and substituting

values of potential and kinetic energy and using
variational calculus, the following relations are
obtained (Tsiatas 2009):

Z 2  2
ow
q
dzdA
ot
A

29

h2

La T  P T  UT

myy vyy mxy vxy dV

ZZ

30

28

0 

 2

 
1
E
ow
o2 w
o2 dw
z

mah
z
B 1  v2
ox2
oy2
ox2 C
C
B
B 






C
2
2
2
B
E
ow
o w
o dw C
B
z
m 2 1 mah
z 2 C
C
Zt1
Zt2 Z B
2
2
1v
oy
ox
oy
C
B
C
B
d La dt

 
 CdV:dt
B
2 
2
2  2
C
B
Ez
o
w
o
dw
o
w
o
dw
t0
t1 V B
C
2z
 4ll2
C
B 1 v oxoy
oxoy
oxoy
oxoy
C
B
C
B








2
2
2
2
A
@
o
w
o
w
o
dw
o
dw
2
 2

 ll
2
2
2
oy
oy
oy
oy
h

ZL ZL Zt2 Z 2
q
0

t1

31



ow odw
dz:dt:dx:dy 0
ot ot

h
2

After simplifying, the integration of Eq. (31)

becomes:
1
Ez2 o2 w o2 dw
Ez2 m o2 w o2 dw
Ez2 o2 w o2 dw


B
1  m2 oy2 ox2
1  m2 ox2 ox2
1  m2 oy2 oy2 C
C
B
C
B
B Ez2 m o2 w o2 dw 1 mahEz o2 dw 1 mahEz o2 dw C
C
h B


C
Zt2 ZL ZL Z 2 B 
B 1  m2 ox2 oy2
1  m2
ox2
1  m2
oy2 C
C dz:dx:dydt
B
C
B
2
2
2
2
2
2 2
C
B
2Ez
o
w
o
dw
o
w
o
dw
o
w
o
dw
2
2
t1 0 0 h B
C

4ll

ll

2
2 oy2 C
B
oxoy
oxoy
oxoy
oxoy
oy
1

m
C
B
C
B
2
2
2
2
2
2
A
@
o
w
o
dw
o
w
o
dw
o
w
o
dw
2
2
ll2 2

ll

ll
2
2
2
2
2
oy ox
ox oy
ox ox
0

ZL ZL Zt2 Z 2
q
0

t1

32



ow odw
dz:dt:dx:dy 0
ot ot

h
2

123

44

R. Razavilar et al.

The parameter, D is represented as the flexural

rigidity of plate and MT as the thermal moment which
are defined as:
h

12
MT 3
h

Z2
ahzdz

33

h2

h;ii

Eh3
121  m2

34

By using the first order variation theory, the

governing equation of motion for plane stress theory
are obtained as:


o4 w
o4 w
2

ll
h
2 D ll2 h
4
4
ox
oy
 2

o4 w
o MT o2 MT
 2 2 D1 m 

ox oy
ox2
oy2

D ll2 h

qh

o2 w
0
ot2

35

For the plane strain condition, the governing

equation can be obtained using transforming relatsions
as follow:
^

eii exx eyy ezz

o2 w
o2 w
mz o2 w o2 w

z 2  z 2

ox
oy
1  m ox2 oy2
1 v
ah

1  v

^

^
o4 w
o4 w
^ 2
^ 2

l
l
h

2
D

l
l
h
ox4
oy4
0 ^
^ 1
4
2
2
^
ow
o MT o MT A
 2 2 D1 m  @ 2
ox oy
ox
oy2

40

We plan to formulate and solve the thermoelastic

coupled problem using the standard approach as was
used by Lifshitz and Roukes for the TED of a beam
resonator. Hence, we make some simplification in
the thermal conduction equation. Noting that thermal gradients in the plane of the cross-section along
the plate thickness direction are much larger than
gradients along the length and width of the plate
then we can ignore the second order derivative
terms of temperature change in x and y directions in
the thermal conduction equation. Hence by substituting values of Eq. (39) in Eq. (40) it follows:


1 mEa2 T0 oh
qcv
1  2v1  v ot


o2 h EaT0 z o3 w
o3 w
k 2

41
oz
1  m otox2 otoy2

D ll2 h

qh

o2 w
0
ot2

12
MT 3
h
^

Z2

1 mahzdz

D
l
^
;l
1  m2
1  m2

k
Ea2 T0
R1 m
; R
; C
qcv
1  2v1  v
qcv
42

The thermal couple equation for the plane stress

state is obtained as:
 3

oh
o2 h
Rz
ow
o3 w
1 C K 2

ot
oz
a1  m otox2 otoy2
43
Using transforming relations, the thermal equation
for the plane strain theory become:

38

3.1 Thermal couple equation

The strain trace tensor and heat conduction equation
are defined as follow:

123

37

h2

By defining the following parameters:

36

where coefficients of the governing equation of

motion for the plane strain state are as follow:

qcv _
EaT0
h
e_ii
k
k1  2v

39

 3

o2 h
Rz
o w
o3 w
1C
K 2

ot
oz
a1  m2 otox2 otoy2
^

i oh

44
where coefficients of thermal couple equation for the
plane strain model are as follow:

Investigation of TED

E1 ma2 T0
1  mqcv

R
C
1  3m1  2m
^

45

45

46

The governing equation of motion, i.e. Eq. (35)

along with the thermal couple equation Eq. (43) are
used to calculate the TED of the system for the plane
stress model. In a similar manner, the Eqs. (36) and
(44) are coupled equations that are used to calculate
themoelastic damping of the system by considering
plane strain condition.
3.2 Calculating TED

where:


1 Cs 1=2
c
K

51

Boundary conditions for thermal equations are

zero-heat flux from the plate to the surrounding that is
described as follow:
o
h
H0 x; y; z 0 at z 
52
oz
2
By substituting the boundary conditions in the
general governing equation, one obtains:
 2

o
R
o W0 o2 W0
H0 x; y; z

oz
a1 C1  m ox2
oy2
cC1 ecz  cC2 ecz jzh 0
2

53

To proceed with the calculation of TED, the transverse

displacement and temperature distribution functions
of following forms are assumed:

And constants of the equation, i.e. C1 and C2 are

calculated with the help of following equations:

w W0 x; yest ; hx; y; z; t H0 x; y; zest

8
>
>
>
<

47

Substitution of Eq. (49) in the thermal equation, i.e.

Eq. (43) results in:
1 CsH0 x; y; zest
0
1
o2 H0 x; y; z st
e
BK
C
oz2
B
C
B
C


2
2
@
Rz
o W0 x; y o W0 x; y A
sest

a1  m
ox2
oy2
48
By sorting and simplifying Eq. (50) based on the
second derivative of H0, it changes Eq. (50) into:
3
1 CH0 x; y; z
o2 H0 x; y; z 6
 2
7 s
4
Rz
o W0 x; y o2 W0 x; y 5 K
oz2


a1  m
ox2
oy2
2

49
And the solution of the thermal equation is found in
the following form:
 2

R
o W 0 o2 W 0
z
H0 x; y; z

a1 C1  m
ox2
oy2
cz
cz
C1 e C2 e
50

 2

R
o W 0 o2 W 0
h
h

cC1 ec2  cC2 ec2 0

a1 C1  m ox2
oy2
 2

>
R
o W 0 o2 W 0
h
h
>
>
:

cC1 ec 2 cC2 ec2 0

a1 C1  m ox2
oy2

54
Then the solution of the thermal equation is
obtained as follow:
 2

R
o W 0 o2 W 0
H0 x; y; z

a1 C1  m ox2
oy2
!
sin hcz
z

55
c cos h ch
2
Substituting above terms in the couple thermalmoment equation, the following relation is obtained:
h

12
MT 3
h

Z2
ahzdz
h
2

 2

R
o W0 o2 W0

1 C1  m ox2
oy2

 
!
24
ch
ch
est
 1
tanh

3
2
2
ch

56

Substituting Eq. (58) into Eq. (35) yields the differential equation of the transverse vibration of the plate:

123

46

R. Razavilar et al.

1
0
D ll2 h
B

 
! C
C
B
24
ch
ch
A
@ D1 mR
1

tanh
3
1 C1  m
2
2
ch
 4

4
o W0
o W0
o4 W 0
o2 W 0


qh
ox4
ox2 oy2
oy4
ot2
57
The isothermal value of s can be expressed as:
siso ixiso

58

where xiso is expressed as follow:

s

p2 K D
eq

xiso
L
N qh


1
R1 m
s siso 1
2 k1 C1  m

 
!!
24
ch
ch
 1
tanh

siso X
2
2
ch3
61
where the equivalent stiffness and rigidity ratios of the
microplate are, respectively,
k

Deq
; Deq D lhl2
D

62

Separating the real and imaginary parts of Eq. (63)

leads to the following relations:
59



1
R1 m
6 sinhn  sinn
1 3
2 k1 C1  m
n coshn cosn


1
R1 m
6
6 sinhn sinn
ImX

2 k1 C1  m n2 n3 coshn cosn

ReX 1

where coefficients K and N are specified in Table 2.

Three types of boundary conditions of the microplate are studied namely, i.e. C-C-C-C(fully clamped),
C-F-C-F(Clamped-Free-Clamped-Free) and C-S-CS(Clamped-Simply support-Clamped-Simply support) are shown in Fig. 2 (Leissa 1969) and the results
for TED are discussed for this boundary conditions.
Therefore, the value s considering thermoelastic
and couple stress effects can be written as:

p2

s
L
v


ch ch 
R
24
uK Deq D1 m

1

tanh
t
2
2
1C1m
ch3
Nqh

60
Due to the low value of the TED, the implicit nature
of this equation can be removed with an acceptable
order of error by substituting s with sis0 in f (s).
Table 2 Frequency coefficients for Eq. (59)
K

C-C-C-C

12 ? 8(a/b)2 ? 12(a/b)4

2.25

C-F-C-F

1.5

C-S-C-S

4 ? 2(a/b)2 ? 0.75(a/b)4

0.75

63
where
r
1 Cxiso
nh
2K

64

According to the complex frequency approach, the

inverse of the QF of the TED can be achieved as
follow:





Res

2 ReX
Q1 2
65


Ims
ImX
Therefore, the modified relation for calculating
TED according to the couple stress theory for the plane
stress condition is expressed as follows:


R1 m
6
6 sinhn sinn
Q1


MCST
k1 C1  m n2 n3 coshn cosn
66
It is obvious that neglecting the couple stress effect
(l = 0), leads to (k = 1) corresponding to the classical
theory, the TED for plane stress and plane strain
conditions can be expressed as:

Fig. 2 Boundary
conditions for the
microplate a C-C-C-C, b CF-C-F, c C-S-C-S

(a)

123

(b)

(c)

Investigation of TED

47



1 mR 6
6 sinhn sinn

1  m n2 n3 coshn cosn
^
^ 1
0
^
R
6
6
sinhn

sinn
A
@ 

^
^
1  2m ^2 ^3 coshn
cosn
n
n

revealed that size dependent mechanical properties

of silicon in microscale is negligible but for nickel and
gold is considerable. A square shaped plate that made
of gold is under study with 200 9 200 lm length and
width and material properties as listed in Table 3. In
this section, characteristic analysis of a rectangular
microplate made of gold using the MCST with various
boundary conditions is carried out and results are
compared with those of the classical theory as
described by Lifshitz and Roukes (2000). In order
comparition material type on the QF, material properties of silicon listed in Table 3.

Q1
clasic
^ 1

Qclasic

67
The analytical relations representing the TED for
the plane strain condition considering the couple stress
effects is expressed as follow:
^
^ 1

QMCST ^
^
k1 C1  2m

@6

^2

^
^ 1
6 sinhn sinn A

 ^3
^
^
n coshn cosn

68
4.1 Effects of material type on the quality factor
where
^
^

Deq

The deformation behavior of materials in the micro

scale has been experimentally shown to be size
dependent. Material length-scale parameters for various beam thicknesses are reported (Voyiadjis and
Abu Al-Rub 2005; Feng and Zhao 2008). Effect of the
material property on the quantity factor for a fully
clamped microplate is studied by comparing the
values of Q-1 versus h. Considering the Lifshitz and
Roukes classical model(Lifshitz and Roukes 2000),
the variation of Q-1 versus h diagram for microplates
made of silicon and gold is shown in Fig. 3. The
expression of Lifshitz and Roukes for TED is given by
(Lifshitz and Roukes 2000):


Ea2 T0 6
6 sinhn sinn
1
QLR

73
qCv n2 n3 coshn cosn

69

D
^

Deq D lhl2

xiso

v
u^
r

p2 K u
tDeq

L
N qh

70

71

s
^ ^
^

nh

1 Cxiso
2K

72

4 Case study

It is obvious that effect of the material type is very

significant on the QF and consequently the damping
ratio of actuator. For example the value of Q-1 for

In order to study the effects of the length-scale

parameter on the TED, a rectangular square shape
microplate is studied. Experimental results have
Table 3 Material properties of the microplate
Property

Gold

Silicon

Youngs modulus (E)

79 (GPa)

165.9 (Gpa)

Poissons ratio (m)

Mass density (q)
Specific heat at constant volume (Cm)

0.44
19,320 (kg/m)
129 (J/kg K)

0.25
2,330 (kg/m)
713 (J/kg K)

Thermal conductivity (k)

318 (W/m K)

156 (W/m K)

Coefficient of linear thermal expansion (a)

14.2 9 10-6 (K-1)

2.59 9 10-6 (K-1)

Length scale (l)

0.73 lm for 1 \ h \ 2 lm

0.47 lm for 0.5 \ h \ 1 lm

1.05 lm for h [ 2 lm

123

48

R. Razavilar et al.
-3

10

25

LR theory for Gold

LR theory for Silicon

Plane Stress
Plane Strain

-4

20

Rigidity Ratio

Q-1

10

-5

10

-6

10

10

-7

10 -7
10

15

-6

10

-5

10

-4

10

-3

10

-2

10

-1

10

Plate thickness(m)
0

0.1

0.2

Fig. 3 Comparison of material property effect using LR theory

(logarithm scale)

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Plate thickness (m)

1
x 10

-5

Fig. 4 Variation of plate rigidity versus thickness

gold is more than 7 times than that of silicon in plate

thickness of 1 micron.

4.5

x 10

-6

C-C-C-C MCST plain stress

C-C-C-C classic plain stress
C-S-C-S MCST plain stress
C-F-C-F MCST plain stress
C-C-C-C MCST plain strain
C-C-C-C classic plain strain
C-S-C-S MCST plain strain
C-F-C-F MCST plain strain

4.2 Effect of thickness on the rigidity ratio

3.5

4.3 Ambient temperature effect on TED

Variation of QF with the environment temperature
considering plane stress condition is shown in Fig. 5
for a plate with constant thickness of 2 lm. It is
obvious from Eqs. (6669) that the value of the QF
decreases linearly as the environment temperature
increases and this phenomena can be observed from
Fig. 5. According to Fig. 5 the maximum slope of the
Q-1-T occurs for the classical model with fully
clamped boundary condition of the plane strain model
and minimum discrepancy in QF belongs to fully

123

-1

2.5

According to Eq. (64), by considering the couple

stress effect in the equation of motion, the plate
rigidity is increased. It is obvious from Fig. 4 that the
difference between the rigidity ratios predicted by
MCST and the classical theory is considerable only
when the plate thickness is in the range of the lengthscale parameter of the material. Hence, by increasing
the microplate thickness, the rigidity ratio approaches
to the unity because the effect of micro scale is
vanished and macro-scale theories are prevailed. It can
also be concluded from Fig. 4 that the size dependency
of the rigidity ratio in the plane strain condition is
more considerable than the plane stress state. The
jumping observed in the Fig. 4 is due to the change in
values of length scale according to Table 3.

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Temperature (K)

Fig. 5 Variation of quality factor with ambient temperature,

plane stress and plane strain state

clamped model considering the couple stress theory in

plane stress condition. It is also observed that the value
of the slope of Q-1-T curve considering MCST for the
plane strain model is higher than the plane stress
model.
4.4 Critical thickness analysis of TED
Critical thickness is a significant parameter in highquality resonators and should be considered in their
designing process. As the thickness of the resonator
approaches its critical value, the TED ratio reaches its
maximum value. Critical thickness happens when the

Investigation of TED

1.6

x 10

49

-5

3.5

-1

CCCC

1.4

x 10

C-C-C-C MCST plane stress

C-C-C-C classic plane stress
C-S-C-S MCST plane stress
C-F-C-F MCST plane stress
C-C-C-C MCST plane strain
C-C-C-C classic plane strain
C-S-C-S MCST plane strain
C-F-C-F MCST plane strain

-1 CSCS
-1 CFCF

1.2

-3

2.5

Q-1

& -1

1.5

0.8

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

plate thickness (m)

5
x 10

-5

0.2

Fig. 7 Variation of TED ratio versus resonator thickness

0

Thickness (m)

5
x 10

-5

Fig. 6 Variation of characteristic time with thickness

plate passes from isothermal to adiabatic condition

(Rezazadeh et al. 2009). The required time for
temperature gradients to relax in the resonator is
called the characteristic time. For a rectangular plate
considering the first mode of vibration, the characteristic time is given as (Sun and Tohmyoh 2009):


h2 qCv
sR 2
74
p
k
When sR x-1 the resonator is in isothermal
condition and when sR x-1, the resonator is in
adiabatic condition (because it has no time to relax).
However, when sR x & 1, the TED ratio is maximized. Since, considering by assuming the MCST, the
stiffness and consequently the frequency of the beam
changes, it is expected that the critical thickness
calculated according to MCST differs from its value
according the LR theory. Figure 6 shows variation of
sR and x versus the plate thickness for a resonator
made of gold considering plane stress state and for
three types of boundary condition.
4.5 Variation of TED ratio with thickness
incerment
Variation of TED for microplates made of gold with
thickness increment and three boundary conditions
considering MCST is studied. It is obvious from

Eq. (66) that considering the effect of the length-scale

parameter causes reduction of the TED in comparison
with the classical theory. Figure 7 represents the
variation of TED ratio versus microplate thickness for
both plane stress and plane strain conditions. In this
figure, it is shown that as the plate thickness increases,
the TED Q-1 first increases and then decreases. There
also exists a critical thickness size at which Q-1 takes
the maximum value. When the plate thickness is larger
than the critical thickness, the TED ratio decreases.
For a plate under the same boundary conditions, the
value of Q-1, i.e. the TED ratio is more considerable in
plane strain model than the plane stress model. By
increasing the thickness, the effect of MCST is
reduced and the value of TED is converged to the
same value for both plane stress and plane strain
models.

5 Conclusion
In this study the governing equations of motion of a
microplate considering MCST are derived. Three
boundary conditions are employed as case studies and
effects of the thickness and the ambient temperature
on the QF are discussed. The effect of thickness on the
rigidity is investigated and the critical thickness is
obtained.
Results of material selection show that the effect of
material type is a significant parameter on TED. It is
shown that the TED is more considerable for gold in

123

50

R. Razavilar et al.

comparison to silicon at the same plate thickness. It is

also demonstrated that the stiffness of micromiplate
increases as the value of its thickness gets closer to the
length-scale parameter. Therefore, the value of the
natural frequency of the plate obtained by using the
MCST is higher in comparison with the classical
theory. Results also show that as the ambient temperature increases, the TED obtained by both MCST and
the classical theory increases, however the slope of the
Q-1-T is maximum for the classical theory in plane
strain model and minimum for the MCST with C-C-CC boundary condition in plane stress model. Results
illustrate that the effect of the length-scale parameter
on TED becomes more significant when the microplate thickness is in the vicinity of the length scale
parameter. The critical thickness, which is an important design parameter, is studied considering the
MCST and the critical thickness for each boundary
condition is obtained for the plane stress model. It is
found that the maximum critical plate thickness is for
the C-C-C-C boundary condition. It is also shown that
by considering the length-scale parameter, the critical
thickness value decreases and the natural frequency
increases while the characteristic time is constant.

Appendix A
Components of the deviatoric curvature tensor are
calculated in Eq. (A.1) as follow:


1
oeqj
oeqi
s
vij
eipq
ejpq
! msij 2ll2 vsij
2
oxp
oxp


1
oeq1
oeq1
o2 w
s
e1pq
!
v11
e1pq

2
oxoy
oxp
oxp
ms11 2ll2

o2 w
oxoy





1
oe2
oeq1
1 o2 w o2 w
e1pq

e2pq


!
2
oxp
2 oy2 ox2
oxp
 2

o2 w
s
2 o w

m12 ll
oy2 ox2


1
oeq3
oeq1
s
e1pq
v13
e3pq
0 ! ms13 0
2
oxp
oxp


1
oeq1
oeq2
e2pq
vs21
e1pq
!
2
oxp
oxp
vs12

123

ms21 ll22
vs22


o2 w o2 w

oy2 ox2



1
oeq2
oeq2
o2 w
e2pq
!

e2pq

2
oxoy
oxp
oxp

o2 w
ms22 2ll2
oxoy


1
oeq3
oe2
s
e2pq
v23
e3pq
0 ! ms23 0
2
op
op


1
oeq1
oeq3
s
e3pq
e1pq
v31
0 ! ms31 0
2
op
op


1
oeq2
oeq3
s
e3pq
e2pq
v32
0 ! ms32 0
2
op
op


1
oeq3
oeq3
s
e3pq
e3pq
v33
0 ! ms33 0
2
op
op
A:1

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123