Asymmetric bifurcation of thermally and electrically actuated functionally graded material microbeam

In this paper, we investigate the symmetric snap-through buckling and the asymmetric bifurcation behaviours of an initially curved functionally graded material (FGM) microbeam subject to the electrostatic force and uniform/non-uniform temperature field. The beam model is developed in the framework of Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, accounting for the through-thickness power law variation of the beam material and the physical neutral plane. Based on the Galerkin decomposition method, the beam model is simplified as a 2 d.f. reduced-order model, from which the necessary snap-through and symmetry breaking criteria are derived. The results of our work reveal the significant effects of the power law index on the snap-through and symmetry breaking criteria. Our results also reveal that the non-uniform temperature field can actuate the FGM microbeam and induce the snap-through and asymmetric bifurcation behaviours.