A nonlocal strain gradient Timoshenko beam model is developed to study the vibration and instability analysis of the carbon nanotubes conveying nanoflow. The governing equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived by employing Hamilton’s principle, including the effects of moving fluid, material length scale and nonlocal parameters, Knudsen number and gravity force. The material length scale and nonlocal parameters are considered, in order to take into account the size effects. Also, to consider the small-size effects on the flow field, the Knudsen number is used as a discriminant parameter. The Galerkin approach is chosen to analyze the governing equations under clamped–clamped, clamped–hinged and hinged–hinged boundary conditions. It is found that the natural frequency and critical fluid velocity can be decreased by increasing the nonlocal parameter or decreasing the material length scale parameter. Furthermore, it is revealed that the critical flow velocity does not affected by two size-dependent parameters and various boundary conditions in the free molecular flow regime.
Size Effects in Carbon Nanotubes
