On the basis of fractional viscoelasticity, the size-dependent free-vibration response of viscoelastic carbon nanotubes conveying fluid and resting on viscoelastic foundation is studied in this article. To this end, a nonlocal Timoshenko beam model is developed in the context of fractional calculus. Hamilton’s principle is applied in order to obtain the fractional governing equations including nanoscale effects. The Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic model is also used for the constitutive equations. The free-vibration problem is solved using two methods. In the first method, which is limited to the simply supported boundary conditions, the Galerkin technique is employed for discretizing the spatial variables and reducing the governing equations to a set of ordinary differential equations on the time domain. Then, the Duffing-type time-dependent equations including fractional derivatives are solved via fractional integrator transfer functions. In the second method, which can be utilized for carbon nanotubes with different types of boundary conditions, the generalized differential quadrature technique is used for discretizing the governing equations on spatial grids, whereas the finite difference technique is used on the time domain. In the results, the influences of nonlocality, geometrical parameters, fractional derivative orders, viscoelastic foundation, and fluid flow velocity on the time responses of carbon nanotubes are analyzed.
