The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

On the Use of Continuum Mechanics to Estimate the Properties of Nanotubes

Govindjee, Sanjay; Sackman, Jerome L.

UCB/SEMM-1997/16, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1997-12, 7 pages (500 C23 97-16)

In the experimental and theoretical investigation of the properties of nanostructures, the equations of continuum beam theory are being used to interpret the mechanical response of nanotubes. In this work, we examine the validity of such an approach using a simple elastic sheet model and show that at the nanotube scale, the assumptions of continuum mechanics are not longer valid. Relations are derived for pure bending of nanotubes that show the explicit dependence of the "material properties" on system size.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-97-16.pdf (461 KB)