Free Vibration of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Using Nonlocal Truncated Timoshenko-Ehrenfest Beam Theory

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes with their outstanding mechanical, physical and electrical properties have stimulated a significant amount of scientific and technological research due to their uniqueness compared to conventional materials. As a result, an extensive study on their mechanical properties has been conducted, and the static and dynamic behavior of single- walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes has been examined using Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam models. The main objective of this paper is to study the free vibration behaviour of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) using the nonlocal truncated Timoshenko beam theory. According to the Hamilton principle, the equation of motion of Timoshenko single-walled carbon nanotubes is calculated taking into account the truncated theory; and the general corresponding boundary conditions are derived. Finally, some numerical examples are performed to evaluate the effects of the nonlocal coefficient and the length of the nanotube. The obtained results are validated by comparing them with those found in the literature, and they show the accuracy and efficiency of the developed model. Particularly, the results demonstrate that the present formulation is highly efficient and capable of satisfactorily describing the behavior of nanobeams.