Effect of higher-order deformation gradients on buckling

of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Y.Z. Sun
a,b
, K.M. Liew
b,
a
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China
b
Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Available online 23 November 2013
Keywords:
Carbon nanotubes
BernoulliEuler beam
Higher-order gradient continuum
CauchyBorn rule
Buckling
a b s t r a c t
A single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) is treated as a tubular BernoulliEuler beam and the higher-
order deformation gradients are involved to establish a higher-order multiscale beam model. The higher-
order CauchyBorn rule is used to calculate the deformation of bond vectors in the representative cell and
the strain energy density is equivalent to the energy per unit surface area, calculated from the Brenner
potential. On the basis of the classical BernoulliEuler beam theory, the second-order deformation gradi-
ents with respect to the axial direction are also considered. The total strain energy is expressed as an inte-
gral equation, in which all parameters are obtained by calculating the constitutive response around the
circumference. The physical meaning of these parameters is discussed in detail. The global buckling of
SWCNTs is studied, and the critical buckling force is obtained as the analytical formula for different
boundary conditions. The critical buckling force is plotted against the tube chirality, tube radius and tube
length, and it is discovered that the contribution of the higher-order terms rapidly becomes large when
the tube radius or length is small enough.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation play an impor-
tant role in capturing and understanding the ne mechanical prop-
erties of nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs).
Atomistic-based methods, for example, molecular dynamic [13],
can trace the atomic motion and capture the microscale mecha-
nism of nanostructures but they are limited to very small sizes
due to the huge computational cost, which has resulted in emer-
gence of the continuum-based method. The continuum method
treats nanostructures as the continuum media and employs the
classical continuum mechanics theory to study their properties.
Some equivalent continuum models such as the beam model
[4,5], the shell model [6,7] and the truss/frame model [8,9] have
proved to be very efcient from the computational point of view.
A variety of experimental and theoretical studies have reported
that nanostructures deformation behavior is always size depen-
dent [10,11] but the conventional strain-based mechanics theories
fail to characterize the size effect phenomenon.
The scale effect can be successfully modeled by employing the
higher-order continuum theory, in which the constitutive equa-
tions introduce the additional material length scale parameters,
in addition to the classical material parameters [1120]. Mostly
the generally known higher-order theory includes the nonlocal
theory of Eringen [21], strain gradient elasticity [22] and the couple
stress theory [23]. The beam model is very efcient for studying
static and dynamic behaviors of slender nanostructures such as
CNTs and microtubules. Zhang et al. studied the small length effect
on a nonlocal cantilever beam and carried out a detailed analysis of
bending, buckling and vibration of nano-sized beams [12]. Lim
gives detailed statements for static response and bending mo-
ments of nano-sized beams via the nonlocal theory [13,14]. Gao
and Lei studies the small scale effects on mechanical behaviors of
protein microtubules based on the nonlocal elasticity theory [15].
The classical strain gradient elasticity theory and its modied ver-
sion [16] have been applied for analysis of bending, vibration and
buckling of micro-sized beams under various boundary conditions
by some researchers [5,11,17,18]. A microstructure-dependent
model for the Timoshenko beam has been developed by using a
modied couple stress theory and Hamiltons principle to account
for the microstructural effect [19]. Kahrobaiyan et al. also investi-
gated size-dependent dynamic characteristics of atomic force
microscopic cantilevers based on the modied couple stress theory
[20]. However, in all these studies, the microscale structural infor-
mation is not incorporated into the proposed model and scale
parameters need to be assumed to study their effect on the nano-
structures behavior.
An alternative higher-order theory is the higher-order gradient
continuum [24], in which strain energy density is treated as a func-
0263-8223/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2013.11.013

Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 34426581.

E-mail address: kmliew@cityu.edu.hk (K.M. Liew).
Composite Structures 109 (2014) 279285
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Composite Structures
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ compst r uct
tion of the rst- and second-order deformation gradients. Although
the derived stress is not symmetric, the higher-order CauchyBorn
rule [2527] can be easily used to establish the higher-order con-
stitutive model. The higher-order gradient continuum has also
been applied to CNTs for theoretical analysis and numerical simu-
lation [28,29]. A remarkable characteristic is that the higher-order
constants can be calculated directly and none of the parameters are
required to be tted or assumed in advance. Motivated by the re-
cent study about the effect of the size of nano-sized beams
[5,11], we attempt to study the effect and contribution of the high-
er-order terms by treating an SWCNT as a BernoulliEuler beam in
which the higher-order deformation gradients are involved; com-
pared to the classical BernoulliEuler beam, three additional terms
are considered. These terms are directly calculated in the theoret-
ical scheme of the higher-order continuum, their meanings are dis-
cussed and their contributions are studied in the case of global
buckling of SWCNTs.
2. Higher-order continuum constitutive relationship
The essential idea of the higher-order gradient continuum is
that the strain energy density depends not only on the rst-order
deformation gradient but also on the second-order deformation
gradient. Details about the higher-order gradient continuum can
be found in the related literature [24,28].
Consider a transformation from a 2-D plane X = (X
1
, X
2
) into a
curved surface in 3-D space x = (x
1
, x
2
, x
3
) where the rst- and sec-
ond-order deformation gradients can be dened as
F(i; J) =
@x
@X
; G(i; J; K) =
@
2
x
@X
2
(1)
where i = 1, 2, 3 and J, K = 1, 2.
The rst-order Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor P and higher-order
stress tensor Q are given by
P =
@/
@F
; Q =
@/
@G
(2)
where / is the strain energy density dened on the reference
conguration.
The tangential moduli are given by
M
FF
=
@
2
/
@F @F
; M
FG
=
@
2
/
@F @G
; M
GF
=
@
2
/
@G @F
; M
GG
=
@
2
/
@G @G
(3)
With the above transformation, an arbitrary vector R in the refer-
ence conguration is transformed into a curved line on the current
conguration (Fig. 1) that corresponds to a special vector r that
looks like a chord on the curved surface. For an arbitrary deforma-
tion, the exact calculation of vector r is difcult or impossible. We
use the higher-order CauchyBorn rule [2527] to approximate
vector r, which provides a good interlinking with the higher-order
continuum theory. Vector r is approximated as
r ~ F(X) R
1
2
G(X) : (R R) (4)
The authors have established a higher-order constitutive model for
SWCNTs based on the higher-order gradient continuum and the
higher-order CauchyBorn rule. An initial SWCNT can be viewed
as having been formed by rolling up a graphite sheet into a cylin-
drical shape (Fig. 2a). In the continuum model, a graphite sheet is
viewed as a continuum planar sheet and an initial SWCNT is
viewed as a hollow cylindrical tube with a thin smooth surface
(Fig. 2b).
To evaluate the strain energy density at a given point, a repre-
sentative cell structure is imagined at this point (Fig. 2) whose ori-
entation in the reference conguration is determined by the
chirality of SWCNT. It should be pointed out that an internal shift
g = (g
1
, g
2
) must be added to ensure the minimum energy of the
atomic system because the lattice structure is not centrosymmetric
[26,27,30]; vector r
IJ
is calculated as
r
IJ
= F (R
IJ
g) G : [(R
IJ
g) (R
IJ
g)[=2 (5)
A magnied cell structure is shown in Fig. 3 in which atom I is
connected to three bonds I J (J = 1, 2, 3).
The present research employs Brenner potential to describe the
CC interaction. Following Tersoff [31] and Brenner [32], the bond-
ing energy between atoms I and J is expressed as
V
B
(r
IJ
) = V
R
(r
IJ
) B
IJ
V
A
(r
IJ
) (6)
where r
IJ
is the distance between atoms I and J and V
R
and V
A
are
repulsive and attractive pairs of the energy terms, respectively, gi-
ven by
V
R
(r
IJ
) =
D
(e)
S 1
e

2S
_
b(r
IJ
R
(e)
)
f
c
(r
IJ
) (7a)
V
A
(r
IJ
) =
D
(e)
S
S 1
e

2=S
_
b(r
IJ
R
(e)
)
f
c
(r
IJ
) (7b)
f
c
is a smooth cut-off function that limits the range of the potential
and is given by
f
c
(r) =
1 r < R
(1)
1
2
1 cos
p(rR
(1)
)
R
(2)
R
(1)
_ _ _ _
R
(1)
< r < R
(2)
0 r > R
(2)
_

_
(8)
where R
(1)
and R
(2)
are the effective ranges of the cut-off functions.
The parameter B
IJ
in Eq. (6) represents multi-body coupling be-
tween the bond I J and the local environment of atom I, given by
B
IJ
= 1

KI;J
G(h
IJK
)f
c
(r
IK
)
_ _
d
(9)
r
1
x
3
x
2
x
R
2
X
1
X
Fig. 1. A planar sheet is transformed as a spatial curved surface. With this transformation, the vector in the reference conguration is deformed as a curved line that
corresponds to a spatial vector.
280 Y.Z. Sun, K.M. Liew/ Composite Structures 109 (2014) 279285
where h
IJK
is the angle between bonds I J and I K and the angle
function G is given by
G(h
IJK
) = a
0
1
c
2
0
d
2
0

c
2
0
d
2
0
(1 cos(h
IJK
))
2
_ _
(10)
For atoms I and J with different local environments, Brenner
suggested replacing B
IJ
in Eq. (9) with [30]:
B
IJ
=
1
2
(B
IJ
B
JI
) (11)
Parameters D
(e)
, S, b, R
(e)
, d, R
(1)
, R
(2)
, a
0
, c
0
, d
0
in the above equa-
tions can be determined by tting with the known physical prop-
erties of carbon. Brenner gave two sets of parameters, of which the
rst set is used in our research [32].
Using the Brenner potential, the energy of atom I in the repre-
sentative cell can be calculated as
V
I
= V
I
(F; G; g) =
1
2

3
J=1
V
B
(r
IJ
) (12)
The strain energy density at the evaluated point is given by
/ = /(F; G; g) =
V
I
X
I
=
1
2X
I

3
J=1
V
B
(r
IJ
) (13)
where X
I
is the average area per atom in the reference congura-
tion, calculated as 3

3
_
r
2
0
=2 with r
0
being the bond length.
Substituting Eq. (13) into Eqs. (1)(3), one can obtain the consti-
tutive relationship for SWCNTs. Of course, the whole calculation is
very complicated; for detailed procedure one may refer to [2529].
The above method is applicable to the deformed SWCNT to also, for
determination of the nonlinear constitutive response (Fig. 2c).
3. BernoulliEuler beam model
The beam model is a convenient and efcient tool to study sta-
tic and dynamic behaviors such as buckling and vibration of long
SWCNTs. In the BernoulliEuler beam model, we only need to con-
sider the transverse displacement of the axis (Fig. 4), i.e. the deec-
tion u
3
= u
3
(x
1
); longitudinal displacement of location (x
2
, x
3
) on
the cross section is calculated as
u
1
= x
3
@u
3
@x
1
(14)
In the classical BernoulliEuler beam theory, only stress compo-
nent r
11
needs to be considered. Following Civalek and Demir
[5,11], we treat the strain energy density as a function of rst-
and second-order deformation gradients F
11
, G
111
and G
311
. In
[5,11], the involved higher-order term is the dilatation gradient
e
113
which has the same expression as the second-order deforma-
tion gradient G
311
, only a negative sign is added. But it is seen that
the second-order deformation gradient G
311
is endowed with a dif-
ferent meaning in later research.
Now, we return to calculation of the stiffness matrix relating
the tress vector r = (P
11
, Q
111
, Q
311
) and the deformation gradient
Fig. 2. A graphene sheet is viewed as a continuum plane and an SWCNT is viewed as a hollow cylindrical tube with a thin smooth surface. Initially the SWCNT is formed by
rolling up a planar sheet into a cylindrical shape. (a) Atomic structure; (b) continuum view; and (c) the deformed SWCNT.
2
1
I
3
Fig. 3. A representative cell is composed of the three bonds I J(J = 1; 2; 3).
Y.Z. Sun, K.M. Liew/ Composite Structures 109 (2014) 279285 281
vector grad = (F
11
, G
111
, G
311
) at an evaluated point. To calculate
the constitutive response, a representative cell is collocated at this
point (Fig. 2). The relationship r grad can be written as
r = H grad (15)
Since an SWCNT can be viewed as having been formed by roll-
ing up a graphite sheet into a cylindrical shape, the following
transform equations are set to describe the deformation of the
bending beam relative to the planar conguration
x
1
= X
1
u
1
(16a)
x
2
=
Cc
2p
sin 2p
X
2
C
_ _ _ _
(16b)
x
3
=
Cc
2p

Cc
2p
cos 2p
X
2
C
_ _ _ _
u
3
(16c)
where C is the width of the graphite sheet and c describes the cir-
cumferential stretch.
Using Eqs. (1), (13) and (16), deformation gradients F
22
, G
222
, F
32
and G
322
can be exactly calculated and F
11
, G
111
and G
311
can be cal-
culated as
F
11
= 1 x
3
@
2
u
3
@X
2
1
; G
111
= x
3
@
3
u
3
@X
3
1
; G
311
=
@
2
u
3
@X
2
1
(17)
All three bond vectors in the representative cell are approxi-
mated by using Eq. (5). It is emphasized that the initial bond vec-
tors in the planar conguration should be precisely calculated, in
advance, using an optimization method [28,29]. The strain energy
density can be calculated using Eq. (13); it is a function of c, g
1
, g
2
,
F
11
, G
111
and G
311
/ = /(c; g
1
; g
2
; F
11
; G
111
; G
311
) (18)
The equilibrium state can be determined with the Newtons
method. Let us introduce the unknown vector as
k = (c; k
1
; k
2
; F
11
; G
111
; G
311
)
T
(19)
The non-equilibrium force vector and the stiffness matrix are
f
k
=
@V
I
@k
; K
k
=
@
2
V
I
@k
2
(20)
The unknown vector can be determined by iteratively solving
the incremental equation
K
k
Dk = f
k
(21)
where Dk is the incremental solution.
If matrix K is written as
K =
K
11
K
12
K
T
12
K
22
_ _
(22)
where K
11
, K
12
and K
22
are the 3 3 matrix. The stiffness matrix H
can be calculated as
H = K
22
K
T
12
K
1
11
K
12
(23)
The total strain energy can be written as
U =
1
2
_
X
(H
11
F
2
11
H
22
G
2
111
H
33
G
2
311
2H
13
F
11
G
311
)dV (24)
Inserting Eq. (17) into (24), the system energy can be rewritten
as
U =
1
2
_
X
H
11
x
2
3
u
//
3
_ _
2
H
22
x
2
3
u
///
3
_ _
2
H
33
u
//
3
_ _
2
2H
13
x
3
u
//
3
_ _
2
_ _
dV
(25)
Since a constant deformation gradient contributes to a lift of total
energy, the unit gradient associated with F11 is ignored while it is
substituted into Eq. (24).
Using dV = dAdx
1
, and performing the integration on the cross
section, we have
U =
1
2
_
L
(B
1
B
2
B
3
) u
//
3
_ _
2
D u
///
3
_ _
2
_ _
dx
1
=
1
2
_
L
B u
//
3
_ _
2
D u
///
3
_ _
2
_ _
dx
1
(26)
where
B
1
=
_
A
x
2
3
H
11
dA; B
2
=
_
A
H
33
dA; B
3
= 2
_
A
x
3
H
13
dV;
D =
1
2
_
A
x
2
3
H
22
dA (27)
In the present study, the strain energy density is denoted as the
energy per unit surface area, and no thickness concept is involved.
The integral in Eq. (27) is with respect to circumference, and can be
calculated using the Gauss integral method. Information of the
microstructure of SWCNTs has been incorporated into the multi-
scale model and all parameters can be directly calculated. But in
most of extant literature [3,1120], scale parameters need to be as-
sumed to study the effect of the higher-order strain gradient.
Table 1 presents the calculated parameters for different (n, n)
SWCNTs. Figs. 5 and 6 plot the variation of parameters B and D
against the tube radius for three types of tubes, i.e. (n, n), (n, 0)
and (3n, 2n) tubes. Subsequently, we shall discuss these parame-
ters meanings and their effect on mechanical properties of
SWCNTs in detail.
Fig. 4. A cantilever beam model for the SWCNT.
Table 1
The obtained parameters for the (n, n) SWCNTs.
(n, n) R (nm) B
1
(eV nm) B
2
(eV nm) B
3
(eV nm) D (eV nm
3
)
(4, 4) 0.2711 89.7440 0.6972 0.08341 0.0423
(6, 6) 0.4115 318.3249 1.0459 0.37024 0.1493
(8, 8) 0.5511 768.2305 1.3923 0.6171 0.3592
(10, 10) 0.6902 1513.1418 1.7386 0.8448 0.7065
(12, 12) 0.8291 2626.7739 2.0849 1.0624 1.2255
(14, 14) 0.9680 4182.8548 2.4313 1.2739 1.9505
(16, 16) 1.1067 6255.1180 2.7778 1.4815 2.9158
(18, 18) 1.2454 8917.2987 3.1244 1.6866 4.1559
(20, 20) 1.3841 12243.1360 3.4711 1.8898 5.7050
282 Y.Z. Sun, K.M. Liew/ Composite Structures 109 (2014) 279285
Parameter B
1
corresponds to the classical bending stiffness,
which should be equal to EI (I is the moment of inertia). Table 1
shows the results are in good agreement with Guo and Zhang
[33] and Wang et al. [27]. B
2
can be understood as contribution
of the local bending stiffness. Actually, H
33
is the local bending
stiffness, which can be well understood by the fact that a single
curved graphene sheet can bear the bending moment. This
problem has been studied in detail recently by Guo and Zhang
[33]. Of course, H
33
has a dependence on the angle between the
tangent plane and the bending orientation. Fig. 7 gives a contour
for the variation of H
33
around the circumference for a (8, 8)
SWCNT. It can be seen that locations (0, 0) and (0, 2R) have the
maximum local bending stiffness but the minimum value appears
at locations (R, 0) and (R, 0). If the tube radius is chosen as a very
large value, the obtained bending stiffness per atom (i.e. M
33
X) is
0.037465 eV nm/atom at locations (0, 0). This value falls well with-
in the estimated range of 0.0310.039 eV nm/atom [34]. Stress P
11
is independent of deformation gradients G
111
and G
311
for the iso-
tropic medium. Our calculation indicates that M
12
is equal to zero
but M
13
is nonzero, which shows that P
11
is coupled with G
311
. This
may be explained by the fact that the curvature along X
2
-direction
can lead to change of the Youngs modulus along X
1
-direction [34].
Moreover, an SWCNT is not a strict isotropic medium and there is a
slight divergence between the longitudinal and circumferential
Youngs moduli [35]. Parameter D describes the contribution of
the higher-order deformation gradient G
111
and this may have a
large effect on the SWCNTs mechanical behavior, which is dis-
cussed in the next section.
4. Global buckling of SWCNTs under axial compression
The above described multiscale model can be employed to
study mechanical properties of SWCNTs such as global buckling
and vibration. This section presents the study about global buck-
ling of SWCNTs under axial compression. Considering an SWCNT
under axial compressive force N, one can obtain the total strain en-
ergy as [11]
U =
1
2
_
L
B u
//
2
_ _
2
D u
///
3
_ _
2
N u
/
3
_ _
2
_ _
dx
1
(28)
The variation of Eq. (28) gives
dU =
_
L
Bu
(4)
3
Du
(6)
3
Nu
//
3
_ _
du
3
dx
Bu
(3)
3
Du
(5)
3
Nu
/
3
_ _
du
3

L
0
Bu
//
3
Du
(4)
3
_ _
du
/
3

L
0
Du
(3)
3
_ _
du
//

L
0
(29)
So, the governing equilibrium equation for global buckling of
SWCNT is
Bu
(4)
3
Du
(6)
3
Nu
//
3
= 0 (30)
If the boundary condition is simply supported at the two ends of
an SWCNT, the critical buckling force is [11]
N
CR
=
p
2
L
2
B
p
2
D
L
2
_ _
(31)
If an SWCNT can be viewed as a cantilever beam, the critical
buckling force is
N
CR
=
p
2
4L
2
B
p
2
D
L
2
_ _
(32)
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
B

(
X
1
0
3
e
V

n
m
)
The tube radius (nm)
(n, n)
(n, 0)
(3n, 2n)
Fig. 5. The calculated parameter B versus the tube radius for (n, n), (n, 0) and (3n,
2n) SWCNTs.
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
D

(
e
V

n
m
3
)
The tube radius (nm)
(n, n)
(n, 0)
(3n, 2n)
Fig. 6. The calculated parameter D versus the tube radius for (n, n), (n, 0) and (3n,
2n) SWCNTs.
Fig. 7. A contour plot for the variation of the local bending moment around the circumference (the unit is eV).
Y.Z. Sun, K.M. Liew/ Composite Structures 109 (2014) 279285 283
Since the critical buckling force of a cantilever beam is always a
quarter of that of a simply supported beam with the same dimen-
sions, we present the results only for the simply supported bound-
ary condition. First, the tube length is xed as 36 nm, to study the
effect of its radius on the critical buckling force. Fig. 8 depicts the
variation of critical buckling force versus the tube radius for (n,
n), (n, 0) and (3n, 2n) SWCNTs; all three curves are almost over-
lapped, which shows that the effect of the higher-order term is
generally small. Fig. 9 plots the variation of the critical buckling
force versus lengths of (8, 8), (17, 0) and (12, 9) SWCNTs. In gen-
eral, the critical buckling force decreases with increase in length
in an approximately reciprocal of L
2
that can be seen from Eq. (31).
Our main interest is how much the critical buckling force of
SWCNT is affected by the higher-order terms. For this purpose,
we denote the contribution ratio of the higher-order terms to the
critical buckling force as
Contribution ratio =
N
CR
N
/
CR
N
CR
100% (33)
where N
/
CR
is the critical buckling force if the higher-order term is
not involved, i.e. B
2
, B
3
, and D are set as zero.
Fig. 10 plots the ratio of contribution of the higher-order terms
versus the tube radius for (n, n), (n, 0) and (3n, 2n) SWCNTs. It can
be seen that the effect of the higher-order terms is very small if the
tube radius is greater than 0.4 nm. But the contribution appears to
be increasing rapidly when the tube radius is less than about
0.4 nm. Fig. 11 shows the ratio of contribution against the tube
length for (6, 6), (11, 0) and (9, 6) SWCNTs. It is rather obvious that
contribution of the higher-order terms has a larger dependence on
tube length. When the tube length is less than about 5 nm, this
effect increases very rapidly with decrease in tube length. But
the effect can be ignored for a longer SWCNT. Although local buck-
ling may happen in the case of an SWCNT with a larger radius if its
length is less than 5 nm, we can draw an unswerving conclusion
that the higher-order term has a noticeable effect on mechanical
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
T
h
e

c
r
i
t
i
c
a
l

b
u
c
k
l
i
n
g

f
o
r
c
e

(
e
V
/
n
m
)
The tube radius (nm)
(n, n)
(n, 0)
(3n, 2n)
Fig. 8. The critical buckling force versus the tube radius.
15 30 45 60 75 90
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
T
h
e

c
r
i
t
i
c
a
l

b
u
c
k
l
i
n
g

f
o
r
c
e

(
e
V
/
n
m
)
The tube length (nm)
(8, 8)
(17, 0)
(12, 9)
Fig. 9. The critical buckling force versus the tube length.
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
T
h
e

c
o
n
t
r
i
b
u
t
i
o
n

r
a
t
i
o

(
%
)
The tube radius (nm)
(n, n)
(n, 0)
(3n, 2n)
Fig. 10. The contribution ratio of the higher-order terms to the critical buckling
force versus the tube radius.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
T
h
e

c
o
n
t
r
i
b
u
t
i
o
n

r
a
t
i
o

(
%
)
The tube length (nm)
(6, 6)
(11, 0)
(9, 6)
Fig. 11. The contribution ratio of the higher-order terms to the critical buckling
force versus the tube length.
284 Y.Z. Sun, K.M. Liew/ Composite Structures 109 (2014) 279285
properties of SWCNTs, which shows a strong dependence on tube
dimensions.
5. Conclusions
A higher-order beam model has been developed based on the
BernoulliEuler beam theory and higher-order gradient contin-
uum, in which information of the microscale structure is incorpo-
rated (Apart from the abovementioned references, there are other
related works of the higher-order gradient continuum on CNTs
studies [3639]). Strain energy density is denoted as the energy
per unit surface area, and no thickness concept is involved. All
parameters are directly calculated and no tted or assumed data
are needed. The present work can thus be viewed as a pure multi-
scale method which can analyze the size effect by considering the
contribution of the higher-order terms.
The physical meaning of the obtained parameters is discussed.
Local bending stiffness is considered in the higher-order beam
model, which has always been ignored in the classical beam mod-
els. The second-order gradient of the axial displacement with re-
spect to the axial direction is involved and it can be clearly seen
that this second-order gradients contribution becomes large when
the tube length is small enough. The normal stress P
11
is found to
be coupled with the curvature. One reason is that the curvature on
the X
2
-direction can lead to change of Youngs modulus on the X
1
-
direction. Another reason is that an SWCNT is not a strict isotropic
medium.
Global buckling of SWCNTs is studied based on the established
higher-order multiscale beam model and contribution of high-
order terms is discussed in detail. It is discovered that the contribu-
tion ratio of the higher-order terms is very small if the tube radius
is larger than about 0.4 nm, but it becomes large when tube radius
is less than about 0.4 nm. Moreover, the effect of the higher-order
term on the critical buckling load increases rapidly when the tube
length is less than about 5 nm.
Acknowledgements
The work in this research was supported by the Research Grants
Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
(Project No. 9041674, CityU 118411), the China National Natural
Science Foundation (Grant No. 11172253), the Program for Science
and Technology Innovation Talents in Universities of Henan Prov-
ince (Project No. 2012HASTIT021) and Program for New Century
Excellent Talents in University, China (Project No. NCET-12-0700).
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