Analytical modeling and numerical analysis of thermoelastic damping in ultrathin elastic films due to surface effects

Analytical techniques used for estimating thermoelastic damping by incorporating both mechanical and thermal interactions between surfaces and the rest of the bulk are intricate and challenging due to the limited understanding of the damping mechanisms in extra-thin films subjected to forced vibrations. This paper proposes a modified model to analytically calculate the thermoelastic damping of ultrathin elastic films due to surface effects and analyzes the thermoelastic damping variation with different factors through numerical experiments on two materials. The model considers surface stresses derived from the elastic surface theory using Kirchhoff's kinetic hypothesis and determines thermoelastic damping by considering thermal dissipation and elastic potential energy. The results show that surface effects significantly influence the thermoelastic damping of the film, and the specific behavior of a thin film’s thermoelastic damping with respect to film thickness is impacted by various factors, including material property, the variation range of film thickness, and the forced vibration frequency. This study provides insights into the thermoelastic damping behavior of thin films and has important implications for the development of nanoscale oscillators in MEMS or NEMS systems.