Free small vibrations of a system of parallel-oriented nanobeams considering van der Waals forces
Keywords:
system of nanobeams, nanotweezer, van der Waals forces, free small vibrationsAbstract
Free small vibrations of a system of N parallel-oriented nanobeams are studied, taking into account van der Waals interaction forces. A boundary condition variant is considered where the lower edges are clamped and the upper edges are free. A system of N nonlinear partial differential equations is split into two systems. The first nonlinear system determines the static deformation of all beams under the action of intermolecular forces, while the second one with variable coefficients describes free small vibrations in the vicinity of this deformed state. It is shown that for the mechanical system under consideration, there exist small vibrations modes coinciding with the modes of a single free cantilever beam. Free small vibrations of two cantilever carbon nanotubes (nanotweezer), as well as three nanotubes, whose vibrations modes are symmetrical about the system midline, are studied in detail. It is noted that these modes are strongly dependent on van der Waals forces: a decrease in the gap between the tubes leads to an increase in van der Waals forces and, as a consequence, to a decrease in the fundamental frequency of the system, and when a critically small gap value is reached, the phenomenon of pull-in instability of nanocantilevers occurs.
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