Sanders shell model for buckling of single-walled carbon nanotubes with small aspect ratio

In this paper, the buckling behaviour of single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is revisited by resorting to Donnell and Sanders shell models, which are put in parallel and shown to lead to very distinct results for CNTs with small aspect ratio (length-to-diameter). This paper demonstrates inability of the widely used Donnell shell theory while it shows the validity and accuracy of the Sanders shell theory in reproducing buckling strains and mode shapes of axially compressed CNTs with small aspect ratios. The results obtained by the later shell theory are close to molecular dynamics simulation results. The Sanders shell theory could capture correctly the length-dependent buckling strains of CNTs which the Donnell shell theory fails to achieve. In view of this study, researchers should adopt the Sanders thin shell theory from hereon instead of the Donnell theory when analyzing CNTs with small aspect ratios. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.