This study investigates influence of fringing field effect on the voltage dependent behavior of electrostatically actuated micro-beams. For this purpose, the size dependent beam model is used. Strain gradient formulation is utilized to consider size effects. The effect of fringing field effect on the beam’s behavior is investigated and it is shown that lack of considering the fringing field effect in the formulation of the problem may lead to considerable error in predicting the size dependent micro-beams behavior under the effect of electrostatic actuation. The results of this research can be used for safe and stable design of electrostatically actuated micro-beams.

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