Apparent stiffening of a graphene nanomembrane with initial curvature

Abstract

A model is developed for bending of a suspended nanomembrane with account for interaction between in-plane and out-of-plane deformation modes. It is shown that the maximum deflection of an initially flat nanomembrane exceeds strongly that of the nanomembrane with an initial curvature. The effect of defects in the crystalline structure of a graphene monolayer on deflection of an initially curved nanomembrane is studied numerically.