Nonlocal continuum model and molecular dynamics for free vibration of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Free transverse, longitudinal and torsional vibrations of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are investigated through nonlocal beam model, nonlocal rod model and verified by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The nonlocal Timoshenko beam model offers a better prediction of the fundamental frequencies of shorter SWCNTs, such as a (5, 5) SWCNT shorter than 3.5 nm, than local beam models. The nonlocal rod model is employed to study the longitudinal and torsional vibrations of SWCNT and found to enable a good prediction of the MD results for shorter SWCNTs. Nonlocal and local continuum models provide a good agreement with MD results for relatively longer SWCNTs, such as (5, 5) SWCNTs longer than 3.5 nm. The scale parameter in nonlocal beam and rod models is estimated by calibrations from MD results. Copyright © 2011 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.