Mechanics of hierarchical 3-D nanofoams

In this paper, we study the mechanics of new three-dimensional hierarchical open-cell foams, and, in particular, its Young's modulus and plastic strength. We incorporate the effects of the surface elasticity and surface residual stress in the linear elastic and plastic analyses. The results show that, as the cross-sectional dimension decreases, the influences of the surface effect on Young's modulus and plastic strength increase, and the surface effect makes the solid stiffer and stronger; similarly, as level n increases, these quantities approach to those of the classical theory as lower bounds. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2012