This paper presents a nonlinear vibration analysis of functionally graded simply supported fluid-conveying microtubes subjected to transverse excitation loads. The development of the nonlinear equation of motion is based on the Euler-Bernoulli theory, Hamilton principle and Strain gradient theory. The nonlinear equation of motion is reduced to a second-order nonlinear ordinary differential equation by the Galerkin method. The Runge-Kutta method is adapted to solve the equation, and the effects of the dimensionless microscale parameters, the amplitude and frequency of excitation loads on the stability of the microtubes system are analyzed. It is found that when the microtube diameter is equal to the material length scale parameter, the microtube movement pattern is quasi-periodic. With the increase of the dimensionless microscale parameter, the microtube movement changes from quasi-periodic to chaos. The smaller the power-law index of volume fraction, the smaller the vibration displacement of microtubes and the better the stability. The larger the amplitude of excitation loads is, the larger the vibration displacement of the microtubes will be. When the frequency of excitation loads is equal to the natural frequency of the microtubes, it will have resonance and the vibration displacement will increase significantly.
Keywords: fluid-conveying microtubes; functionally-graded materials; nonlinear vibration; strain gradient theory; transverse excitation loads.