Elastic buckling analysis of single-walled carbon nanotube under combined loading by using the ANSYS software

This paper studies the pure axially compressed buckling and combined loading effects of a cylindrical shell and an individual single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT). The results of finite element (FE) simulations of SWCNT using the ANSYS software are presented, and are compared with the classical (local) and continuum (nonlocal) mechanical theories. Critical axial stress and deflections are calculated for all the cases. Two types of buckling are considered in this study, namely, the shell buckling which depends on the radius-to-thickness ratio, and the column buckling which is controlled by the length-to-diameter ratio.