Timoshenko-beam effects on transverse wave propagation in carbon nanotubes

This paper studies effects of rotary inertia and shear deformation on transverse wave propagation in individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within terahertz range. Detailed results are demonstrated for transverse wave speeds of doublewall CNTs, based on Timoshenko-beam model and Euler-beam model, respectively. The present models predict some terahertz critical frequencies at which the number of wave speeds changes. The effects of rotary inertia and shear deformation are negligible and transverse wave propagation can be described satisfactorily by the existing single-Euler-beam model only when the frequency is far below the lowest critical frequency. When the frequency is below but close to the lowest critical frequency, rotary inertia and shear deformation come to significantly affect the wave speed. Furthermore, when the frequency is higher than the lowest critical frequency, more than one wave speed exists and transverse waves of given frequency could propagate at various speeds that are considerably different than the speed predicted by the single-Euler-beam model. In particular, rotary inertia and shear deformation have a significant effect on both the wave speeds and the critical frequencies especially for CNTs of larger radii. Hence, terahertz transverse wave propagation in CNTs should be better modeled by Timoshenko-beam model, instead of Euler-beam model. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.