Propagation of in-plane wave in viscoelastic monolayer graphene via nonlocal strain gradient theory

The behaviors of monolayer graphene sheet have attracted increasing attention of many scientists and researchers. In this study, the propagation behaviors of in-plane wave in viscoelastic monolayer graphene are investigated. The constitutive equation and governing equation for in-plane wave propagation is developed by employing Hamilton's principle and nonlocal strain gradient theory. By solving the governing equation of motion, the closed-form dispersion relation between phase velocity and wave number is derived and an asymptotic phase velocity can be acquired. The effects of wave number, material length scale parameter, nonlocal parameter and damping coefficient on in-plane wave propagation behaviors are discussed in the numerical studies. It is found that, when exciting wavelengths or structural dimensions become comparable to the material length scale parameters and nonlocal parameters, the scaling effects on wave propagation behaviors are significant. For nanoscaled graphene sheet, the effects of nonlocal parameter, material length scale parameter and damping coefficient on phase velocity are tiny at low wave numbers while significant at high wave numbers. The phase velocity would increase with the increase of material length scale parameter or the decrease of nonlocal parameter and damping coefficient. Furthermore, results indicate that the asymptotic phase velocity can be increase by increasing material length scale parameter or decreasing nonlocal parameter.