Thermal effect on axial buckling behavior of multi-walled carbon nanotubes based on nonlocal shell model

In the current study, a nonlocal elastic shell model is developed to investigate the axially compressed buckling response of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) considering thermal environment effect. To this end, Eringen's nonlocal elasticity equations are incorporated into the classical Donnell shell theory to represent the MWCNTs as elastic multi-walled shell models coupled with the van der Waals interaction forces between the adjacent layers. Exact solution is presented to obtain the critical axial buckling loads of the nanotubes in thermal environment corresponding to different values of nonlocal elasticity parameter, axial and circumferential wavenumbers, temperature change and aspect ratio of the nanotube. It is found that the effect of small-scale is more prominent for MWCNTs having smaller diameters and a fewer number of walls. It is further found that the low and high temperature environments have contrary influences on the axial buckling of MWCNTs. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.