title: Does Hooke's law work in helical nanosprings?
abstract: Hooke's law is a principle of physics that states that the force needed to extend a spring by some distance is proportional to that distance. The law is always valid for an initial portion of the elastic range for nearly all helical macrosprings. Here we report the sharp nonlinear force-displacement relation of tightly wound helical carbon nanotubes at even small displacement via a molecular mechanics model. We demonstrate that the van der Waals (vdW) interaction between the intertube walls dominates the nonlinear relation based on our analytical expressions. This study provides physical insights into the origin of huge nonlinearity of the helical nanosprings.
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Equipment and Technology of Food, Jiangnan University, 214122, Wuxi, China. junhua.zhao@163.com.
authors.forename: Sudong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ben
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Timon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rabczuk