Theoretical and Numerical Study of Torsional Buckling of Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes

The torsional buckling of a multiwall carbon nanotube embedded in an elastic medium is studied in this paper. The effects of surrounding elastic medium and van der Waals forces are taken into account. Using continuum mechanics, a multilayer elastic shell model is presented for the torsional buckling of a multiwall carbon nanotube. The value of elastic constant of Winkler-type is derived. Finally, the numerical computation is carried out to estimate the critical buckling torque.