title: Elastic buckling of multiwall carbon nanotubes under high pressure.
abstract: This paper studies elastic buckling of individual multiwall carbon nanotubes under radial pressure. The analysis is based on a multiple-elastic-shell model in which each of the concentric tubes of a multiwall carbon nanotube is described as an individual elastic shell. According to their radius-to-thickness ratios, the multiwall carbon nanotubes discussed here are classified into three types: thin, thick, and (almost) solid. The critical pressure for elastic buckling is calculated for examples of all three types. It is found that a thin N-wall nanotube (defined by a radius-to-thickness ratio larger than 4) is approximately equivalent to a single-layer elastic shell whose effective bending stiffness and thickness are N times the effective bending stiffness and thickness of single-wall carbon nanotubes. Based on this result, an approximate method is suggested for replacing the problematic multiwall nanotube of many layers with a multilayer elastic shell of fewer layers. In particular, the critical pressure predicted by the present model is in good agreement with known experimental results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G8, Canada.
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: C Q
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Ru
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mioduchowski
mesh_terms: D019245:Compressive Strength; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003461:Crystallography / Q000379:methods*; D004548:Elasticity; D008422:Materials Testing / Q000379:methods*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification*; D011312:Pressure; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon