Circumferential nonlocal effect on the buckling and vibration of nanotubes

•First revealed the substantial circumferential nonlocal effect (CNE) on nanotube buckling.•Achieved radius/aspect ratio-dependence of CNE on nanotube buckling and vibration.•Located the range of applicability of the nonlocal beam theory without CNE.

The nonlocal beam theories are widely used to study the mechanics of cylindrical nanotubes (NTs). The one-dimensional models however are unable to account for the nonlocal effect in the circumferential direction, which may substantially affect the applicability of the nonlocal beam models. To address the issue this letter examines the circumferential nonlocal effect (CNE) on the buckling and vibration of the NTs. Here the CNE is characterized by the difference between the nonlocal beam model considering the axial nonlocal effect only and the nonlocal shell model with both axial and circumferential nonlocal effects. The aspect ratio and radius-dependence of the CNE are calculated for the singlewall carbon NTs selected as a typical example. The results show that the CNE is substantial for the buckling and vibration of the NTs with small radius (e.g., <1 nm) and aspect ratio (e.g., <15). It however decreases with the rising radius and the aspect ratio, and turns out to be small for relatively wide and long NTs. The nonlocal beam theories thus may overestimate the buckling load and vibration frequency for the thin and short NTs.