On the mechanical analysis of microcrystalline cellulose sheets

Abstract In this research, it has been tried to study the mechanical behavior of a micro annular circular sheet made of microcrystalline cellulose material. A new combination between the modified higher-order shear deformation, also, quasi-three-dimensional displacement fields and the modified couple stress theory has been presented for simulating the mentioned micro-sheet under the transverse loading. Consequently, two types of two and three-dimensional equations in micro-size have been obtained. By solving the obtained governing equations with semi-analytical polynomial method, deflection results have been depicted in form of several diagrams. Due to the use of modified couple stress theory, there is a micro-scale parameter in the analysis that requires laboratory experiments for determining its specific values. Due to this purpose, a micro-cellulose sheet has been tested to determine its deformations under the transverse loading, in consequence, the micro-length scale parameter has been calculated by comparison between the theoretical and test results. It is demonstrated that the size of the analyzed sheet (here the amount of its radius) has the most impact on the value of micro-length scale parameter. This research can be very useful for researchers who study the micro-scale parameter in couple stress theory as well as the interesting properties of structures made of microcrystalline cellulose.