Dynamic torsional buckling of a double-walled carbon nanotube embedded in an elastic medium

An elastic double-shell model based on continuum mechanics is presented to study the dynamic torsional buckling of an embedded double-walled carbon nanotube. Based on the presented model, a condition is derived to predict the buckling load of the embedded double-walled nanotube, and the effect of the van der Waals forces to the buckling load is discussed when an inner nanotube is inserted into an embedded outer one. In particular, the paper shows that the buckling load of the embedded double-walled nanotube is always between that of the isolated inner nanotube and that of the embedded outer nanotube for both dynamic and static torsional buckling, due to the effect of the van der Waals forces. This result is different from that obtained by the existing analysis neglecting the difference of the radii for the embedded double-walled nanotube, which indicates that disregarding the difference of the radii of multi-walled nanotubes cannot properly describe the effect of the van der Waals forces between interlayer spacing. In particular, for static torsional buckling of a double-walled nanotube, it is shown that the critical buckling load cannot only be enhanced, but also be reduced when inserting an inner nanotube into an isolated single-walled one. Additionally, it is shown that the elastic medium always increases the critical buckling load of double-walled nanotubes. The critical buckling load of embedded double-walled nanotubes for dynamic torsional buckling is proved to be no less than that for static torsional buckling.