Determination of the dynamic shearing force and bending moment of a tensioned single-walled carbon nanotube subjected to a uniformly distributed external pressure

Abstract

The high strength-to-weight ratio and flexibility of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) make them of potential use in the control of nanoscale structures for thermal, electrical, structural and mechanical applications. This indicates that they will have a vital contribution to nanotechnology engineering. This paper presents an exact solution to the dynamic response of such CNTs considering the shear force and bending moment under uniformly distributed external pressure. The dynamic behaviour of the SWCNT is modeled by employing the theories of Euler-Bernoulli beam and thermal elasticity mechanics. The developed model that governs the physics of the behaviour of the SWCNT when excited by the aforementioned external agents is solved using Integral transforms. The results of the close form solution in this work were compared with results of past works and excellent agreements were achieved. Furthermore, the dynamic study revealed that a point of maximum shear force on the CNT produced the minimum bending moment at any mode and for any parameter value considered. It is envisaged that this work will enhance the application of SWCNT for structural, electrical and mechanical uses.