Vibration characteristics of single-walled carbon nanotubes based on an anisotropic elastic shell model including chirality effect

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) exhibit remarkable chirality-dependent mechanical phenomena. In present paper, an anisotropic elastic shell model is developed to study the vibration characteristics of chiral SWCNTs. Analytical solution is presented by using the Flugge shell theory and complex method. The suggested model is justified by a good agreement between the present results and some experimental and numerical available data in literature. Furthermore, the model is used to elucidate the effect of tube chirality on the frequencies of SWCNTs. Finally, the influences of the externally applied mid-face axial force and torque on longitudinal, radial and torsional frequencies of SWCNTs are investigated. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.