Buckling and post-buckling behaviors of higher order carbon nanotubes using energy-equivalent model

This paper aims to investigate the size scale effect on the buckling and post-buckling of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) rested on nonlinear elastic foundations using energy-equivalent model (EEM). CNTs are modelled as a beam with higher order shear deformation to consider a shear effect and eliminate the shear correction factor, which appeared in Timoshenko and missed in Euler–Bernoulli beam theories. Energy-equivalent model is proposed to bridge the chemical energy between atoms with mechanical strain energy of beam structure. Therefore, Young’s and shear moduli and Poisson’s ratio for zigzag (n, 0), and armchair (n, n) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are presented as functions of orientation and force constants. Conservation energy principle is exploited to derive governing equations of motion in terms of primary displacement variable. The differential–integral quadrature method (DIQM) is exploited to discretize the problem in spatial domain and transformed the integro-differential equilibrium equations to algebraic equations. The static problem is solved for critical buckling loads and the post-buckling deformation as a function of applied axial load, CNT length, orientations and elastic foundation parameters. Numerical results show that effects of chirality angle, boundary conditions, tube length and elastic foundation constants on buckling and post-buckling behaviors of armchair and zigzag CNTs are significant. This model is helpful especially in mechanical design of NEMS manufactured from CNTs.