Investigating size effects of complex nanostructures through Young-Laplace equation and finite element analysis
- Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne 3001 (Australia)
- School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006 (Australia)
Analytical studies on the size effects of a simply-shaped beam fixed at both ends have successfully explained the sudden changes of effective Young's modulus as its diameter decreases below 100 nm. Yet they are invalid for complex nanostructures ubiquitously existing in nature. In accordance with a generalized Young-Laplace equation, one of the representative size effects is transferred to non-uniformly distributed pressure against an external surface due to the imbalance of inward and outward loads. Because the magnitude of pressure depends on the principal curvatures, iterative steps have to be adopted to gradually stabilize the structure in finite element analysis. Computational results are in good agreement with both experiment data and theoretical prediction. Furthermore, the investigation on strengthened and softened Young's modulus for two complex nanostructures demonstrates that the proposed computational method provides a general and effective approach to analyze the size effects for nanostructures in arbitrary shape.
- OSTI ID:
- 22492971
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 20; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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