A finite element modeling for large deflection analysis of uniform and tapered nanowires with good interpretation of experimental results

• Presenting a mathematical model for large deformation of nanowires with arbitrary loading and boundary conditions by inclusion of surface effect.
• Proposing some realization at the support locations, such that the correspondence between the numerical results and the test results are very good.
• Presenting the large deformation analysis of tapered circular cross sectional nanowires, where the numerical results can be used as reference solutions in the future works.

A large deflection model of nanowires with surface effects is presented. The surface effects are modeled via the generalized Young–Laplace equation. Shear deformation is introduced by using the Timoshenko beam theory, and the total Lagrangian finite element formulation is used for the numerical solution of the problem. To the mathematical model be consistent with the support properties used in the reference experiments, some realizations are considered in the modeling of the supports. The agreement between the results of the proposed model and the experimental measurements reported in the literature is very good as it is much better from the correspondence between the results of the previous models and the experimental results. Besides, at the first time, the large deformation analysis of tapered nanowires is employed, and the numerical results are tabulated.